The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is nearing on closing out its roadmap to get the inaugural edition of the Women’s Indian Premier League (W-IPL) underway and just in time, the BCCI has got what they would have wished for before getting started with the long-awaited Women’s IPL.
There shouldn’t be a shadow of doubt in the fact that the BCCI waited and maybe overread in waiting a little too long to get the Women’s IPL up and running and did so to straightaway gain profits from the league that’ll soak in a lot of cash flow which to an extend is right from the boards’ point of view.
The return of women’s cricket sees the version of the game strengthened than ever before and its deep roots now ensure the BCCI exactly what they would have wished for in an impressive profit tally and that can be said with absolute promise as a reflection of the same was seen at the DY Patil Cricket Stadium, Navi Mumbai.
“Stadium Full, Tickets over”
Things we love to see❤️#INDvAUS #CricketTwitter 📸@Sup_Harman pic.twitter.com/Pdd4J0tC9a
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) December 11, 2022
The Australian women’s team is on their tour of India for a 5-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series and the side after a dominating win in the curtain raiser couldn’t repeat their efforts to gain a 2-0 lead in the series as the side lost to India in an enthralling super over contest.
While the game between the two teams reflected quality cricket as one would expect with the two best coming forward for a game, the highlight of the day remained a banner from outside the DY Patil Stadium which read, “stadium full, tickets over”. The packed stadium while had over 48,000 fans watching their female stars in action, there were over 1 million fans following the game live on Hotstar alone.
1 million+ fans watching Live on Hotstar
48,000+ fans cheering from the stadium #CricketTwitter #INDvAUS— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) December 11, 2022
The tickets for the series so far were available at no cost and that surely was a big plus for fans turning up to the stadium, but to only stick to the same as the reason behind the packed stadiums will be wrong as fans now do want more of women’s cricket and are ready to turn up to stadiums as well and that is reflected in a few stats.
Great crowd and atmosphere and all this with very little promotion – just proves that the demand is real
More Women’s Cricket, please. #CricketTwitter #INDvAUS 📸Disney+Hotstar pic.twitter.com/A15ClM43lf
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) December 9, 2022
While over 1 million fans followed the 2nd Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) live on Hotstar alone, for a previous instance, there were around about 18 million fans watching the India vs South Africa league stage game in the Women’s 50-over World Cup that was played early this year. A stat also tells us that there is a 58 percent increase in time spent by viewers watching women’s cricket from 2018 to 2020.
There isn’t much to understand from between the lines of what these packed stadiums and millions of views mean for the BCCI, it just is what they wanted pre-hand in the lead-up to the inaugural edition of the Women’s Indian Premier League (W-IPL) and arguably can claim this being the right time, which financial is true, but in cricketing context, the tournament is due by at least a year or two, if not more.
