Harmanpreet Kaur sweeps positive towards Women’s IPL and franchise bids

The upcoming women’s IPL is expected to have five teams. During the auction, which is scheduled on January 25, eight of the ten current men’s IPL clubs are anticipated to make a bid for a women’s franchise.
The Indian team’s captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, voiced her enthusiasm for the potential launch of the first Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL), claiming that many retired cricket players have lost out on the chance that the upcoming women’s Indian Premier League presents. The inaugural WIPL season will start in March.
This week, Viacom 18 paid a whopping sum of Rs 951 crore for the broadcasting rights to the league’s first five seasons.
In her statements prior to India’s game against South Africa, Harmanpreet said that the older players missed out on the opportunity that some of these young females would enjoy.
Speaking ahead of the T20 tri-series opener against South Africa, Harmanpreet said, “Many girls all over the world will play. Because the opportunity that the next generation will get is something many old cricketers have missed.”
The Indian captain thinks it’s a big step in the right direction for the growth of women’s cricket.
“Everyone is happy about this and we are waiting for it to start. Personally, for me, it will be a big achievement to participate in that. There can be no bigger achievement for women’s cricket than this,” she added.
On January 16, Viacom18 successfully bid on and won the media rights for the Women’s IPL for a staggering INR 951 crore for the editions 2023–2027. This indicates that each WIPL match costs INR 7.09 crore.
On their own Twitter accounts, a number of well-known female cricketers, including Jhulan Goswami, Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet, and Marizanne Kapp, expressed their happiness.
“This is a big step and all women cricketers were waiting for this opportunity for a long time. And finally, the time has come. The amount of responses we are getting from everyone is outstanding. That was the reason we wanted to express our feelings on social media,” she further quoted.
The most noteworthy Indian players have participated in franchise competitions before. Unlike men’s competition, female cricketers are permitted to compete in international leagues.
The Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL), an Australian franchise league, included eight Indian players in 2021. The number of countries represented was the highest in the WBBL that year.
The first Women’s Hundred events in 2021 also featured Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Deepti Sharma in addition to Harmanpreet.
Women’s cricket will be on par with men’s when the Women’s IPL begins, claims Harmanpreet, a Melbourne Renegades player who won the WBBL 2021 Player of the Tournament honour.
Significantly, she noted, “I think it is a great initiative taken by the BCCI and everyone is really working hard to promote women’s cricket. ICC is also doing so well. We all want to take women’s cricket one step ahead. Hereafter I don’t think women’s cricket will lag behind considerably. In the times to come, I don’t think there will be any difference between men’s and women’s cricket.”
When speaking about the unexpected response and the impact that the broadcasting rights have laid upon, Harmanpreet said, “This is a big step and all women cricketers were waiting for this opportunity for a long time. And finally, the time has come. The amount of responses we are getting from everyone is outstanding. That was the reason we wanted to express our feelings on social media.”