The groundbreaking Women’s Premier League (WPL), which debuted in 2023 and saw Mumbai
Indians winning the dazzling trophy will always be recognised as the year that changed women’s
cricket in India for the better.
For Indian cricket fans, the Tata WPL 2023 was a breath of fresh air. The Tata Women’s Indian
Premier League (WPL) held its inaugural season this year from March 4 through March 26,
creating more excitement and entertainment! For the first season of the WPL alone, bids totalled
roughly Rs. 4669.9 crores, surpassing the $723.59 million bid at the 2008 IPL auction’s opening
round.
“The idea was to make the biggest platform for women cricketers and for them to come and
perform in the most competitive tournament that women’s cricket is ever going to see,” Arun
Dhumal, the chairman of the IPL and the WPL Governing Council told Sportstar.
In comparison to the initial IPL, the first Tata Women’s Premier League (WPL) competition got
hefty sponsorships from prominent bidders. WPL 2023 secured a number of well-known brands
to support its opening edition in 2023. The long-time IPL sponsors The Tata Group, Dream11,
and CEAT also joined as partners for the Women’s Premier League.
Dream11 joined in as the Fantasy League Partner and will pay ₹6 crores each WPL season.
Additionally, CEAT was chosen as the Strategic Timeout Partner, contributing ₹4 crores each
season. Amul served as the Pouring Partner, contributing ₹2.5 crores in addition to pouring
costs. And, by agreeing to a ₹951 crore deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India
(BCCI), Viacom18 also secured media rights for a five-year period.
The TATA WPL’s first season on JioCinema attracted the most views of any women’s
tournament worldwide, according to the official announcement. In fact, almost 10 million new
people tuned in to watch the championship game of the inaugural season between the Mumbai
Indians and Delhi Capitals. According to Viacom18 Sports, the exclusive digital streaming
partner recorded the most watch time per user (more than 50 minutes per match).
Women’s cricket was growing in popularity around the world when the WPL was created. And
now, its value comes from the fact that it offers cricket players a significant stage on which to
display their abilities. The 22 games in the WPL gave new players a chance to experience
top-tier cricket before making it onto the senior national team at a time when women’s games
are still significantly fewer than those for men.
WPL forces us to do more with our youth academies; it allows us to have girls U-15, U-13, U-11
teams, and it’s overall fantastic for the game. It makes it more popular and strengthens the
game’s drive to become an Olympic sport, and it’s great to be part of it,” Parth Jindal said.
WPL has the power to fundamentally change the direction of women’s cricket, revolutionizing
the game in direct accordance with the WPL’s official song motto, “Ye to bas shuruaat hai.”
The league and women’s cricket have a bright future thanks to the huge success of the
inaugural season. One thing is for certain: in 2023, we saw the beginning of something
incredibly phenomenal.
Author: Gauri Agarwal
Profile: Gauri Agarwal is a graduate from St. Stephens College in Economics and English and
a postgraduate from AISTS India in Sport Management and Technology. She is a bronze
medallist at the National Games Gujarat 2022 and a former International tennis player on the
ITF circuit. At present, she works at Sportz Interactive with an aim of revolutionizing the sports
industry.
