VMPL
New Delhi [India], September 24: There was a time when women’s cricket appeared on the wider sporting radar mainly during a World Cup or a major international series. However, the women’s game has now a much more regular presence. International cricket runs through the year, franchise leagues have developed loyal followings, players are becoming household names, and brands are taking the category far more seriously than they did a decade ago.
The Audience Is Already There
The strongest evidence of that has come from the major ICC events.
In 2020, 86,174 spectators filled the MCG for the Women’s T20 World Cup final between Australia and India. It’s one of the defining images in the recent history of women’s sport.
Five years later, the 2025 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup ended with India winning its first title after defeating South Africa in Navi Mumbai. A sold-out crowd of 45,000 attended the final at the DY Patil Stadium. Moving away from the stadium, the numbers become even more striking. According to the ICC, the tournament generated 5.2 billion video views across its digital platforms, making it the most digitally engaged women’s cricket event at the time.
The 2025 final drew 185 million users on JioHotstar, while another 92 million watched through connected television, according to figures released after the tournament.
The Improvement Starts Much Earlier Than the International Game
Women’s cricket looks different today because the quality of players has improved dramatically. For much of its early history, women’s cricket in India was run separately from the BCCI. The Women’s Cricket Association of India, established in 1973, managed the game until it merged with the BCCI in 2006.
Players from that earlier generation have spoken openly about how different the conditions were.
The former India captain Jhulan Goswami recalled that women cricketers once played on ordinary grounds, had little financial security and didn’t have the same access to facilities such as the National Cricket Academy. After the women’s game came under the BCCI, she saw improvements. Later, Mithali Raj made a similar point during her playing career.
On top of this development, the pathway has also become much deeper. In the 2022–23 season, the BCCI introduced a one-day competition for girls at the Under-16 level to give younger players competitive cricket before progressing to Under-19 level. And by the 2026–27 domestic season, the women’s structure included competitions at Senior, Under-23, Under-19 and Under-15 levels.
Government Support Has Changed Too
Earlier, government programmes were largely gender-neutral, with some separate funding for women’s competitions. The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan supported women’s sports competitions in 2015–16. In the following years, the approach has become much more structured.
The Khelo India programme introduced a dedicated Sports for Women component, while women’s leagues have been used across multiple sports to create competition and help identify talent. Government-backed athlete support has also increasingly covered areas such as coaching, equipment, competition exposure, sports science and diet.
Franchise Cricket Has Changed the Commercial Conversation
In India, the WPL has given women cricketers another high-profile stage outside international competition while creating something the commercial side of sport needs. Matches, teams, players, and a defined season create more possibilities for broadcasters, sponsors, advertisers and content platforms.
For the 2026-2027 seasons, the BCCI announced new Women’s Premier League commercial partnership agreements collectively valued at ₹48 crore. Brands are assessing women’s cricket as a sports property capable of delivering attention, engagement and long-term brand value.
A Chance for Cricket to Reach New Markets
The women’s game in cricket’s international expansion deserves more attention. We have already seen encouraging progress from emerging cricket nations across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Pacific.
Thailand’s appearance at the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup was one example of how quickly a new cricket story can capture international attention. The ICC described Thailand's rise to its first major global event as an example of T20 cricket’s ability to help broaden the game’s reach.
What This Means for the Sports Business
The growth of women’s cricket offers a useful lesson for the wider sports industry. A sporting property becomes valuable when people care enough to return to it, and that cannot be achieved by marketing alone. There must be meaningful competition, recognisable players, compelling stories and enough consistency for fans to form a relationship with the sport itself.
For Lokesh Sharma, Founder and Managing Director of TCM Sports, this relationship between a sporting property and its audience is central to how long-term value is created. Women’s cricket, according to him, is a strong example of that process happening in real time.
Sharma believes that the audience is becoming more familiar with the players. Majority of the matches are drawing large crows, and digital consumption has seen a multi-fold growth. Also, franchise leagues are giving sponsors regular platforms, making broadcasters have more meaningful programming throughout the year.
None of these developments exists in isolation. It is how they make the game easier to follow and easier for commercial partners to understand, together. And for brands, that exact thing creates room to think beyond a conventional sponsorship.
The important thing is to enter the market with the right idea. Lokesh Sharma emphasizes how Women’s cricket shouldn’t be treated as a smaller version of men’s property. The audience, stories and cultural context deserve their own thinking too.
A Place of Its Own
Women’s cricket now has major global tournaments, international rivalries, franchise leagues, recognizable stars, commercial partners and a rapidly growing digital audience. But that doesn’t mean every market or competition is equally developed. There is still a huge room for growth. It’s just that the direction shouldn’t become difficult to ignore.
Women’s cricket is now a part of the regular cricket calendar, which is the biggest sign of its progress. And with that, the conversation is gradually moving away from whether women’s cricket belongs on the global sporting stage. Now, all we have to do is watch how far it goes.
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“Women’s Cricket Is Building Its Own Place in Global Sports” – Lokesh Sharma
