New Delhi, 24 Feb. The inaugural edition starts on March 4. India’s biggest companies have invested more than $550 million to acquire the five participating clubs. 15% of the value of the men’s teams. 500 million people watch the men’s league. Only 20 million are expected to follow women’s cricket.
India, the country where cricket is king, will organize from this year the Women’s Cricket Premier League (WPL), a competition similar to the men’s tournament and which aims to professionalize the female athletes of the Asian country.
Comprised of five teams which will play a total of 22 matches between March 4 and 26 in the western city of Mumbai, the competition, promoted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), will serve as the opening act for start it a few days after the Men’s Premier League (IPL), the real goose that lays the golden egg.
LITTLE ECONOMIC INTEREST…
The launch of the women’s competition attracted the interest of around 30 Indian companies, including several owners of clubs in the men’s tournament, who also tried to take control of one of the five franchises.
However, much less outlay was required, with an average disbursement of $112 million per team, bringing the total investment above $550 million, according to Karan Taurani, the firm’s vice president of Indian markets, Elara Capital told EFE Capital.
Although this figure is only 15% of the average value of IPL teams, it is almost double the $60 million each men’s club cost for the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2008.
The disproportion is even greater in the category of television rights which, in the IPL, represents up to 80% of the budgets of certain clubs.
Viacom18, the joint venture between Paramount and Reliance Industries that already owns the digital rights to the men’s tournament, has paid $114.8 million to broadcast the WPL over the next five years, up from $6 billion last year to broadcast a five years in the men’s league.
An abysmal difference which Taurani attributes to the limited reach of women’s cricket, of just 20 million people, in a country of 1.4 billion people that idolizes cricket as if it were a religion. For comparison, the IPL is followed by more than 500 million.
All of this makes the new competition an investment that “can only pay big dividends in the long run, as long as women’s cricket attracts large audiences in India”, the pundit said.
… AND A LARGE GLASS
The wage inequality between men and women is also another tangible aspect from the base. When the IPL was established in 2008, each team had a salary limit of $5 million to build its roster, while that limit rises to $1.5 million for women, according to BCCI data. .
Of the 87 players who will compete in the first edition of the WPL, including around 30 foreigners, the Indian Smriti Mandhana will be the best paid with a gross salary of approximately $410,000. The minimum wage, meanwhile, was set at $12,000.
The establishment of this league is yet another step in the professionalization of Indian athletes, who until now could only show their potential in national team matches and in an annual week-long mini-league that pitted three teams against each other.
Despite economic barriers and low investment, women are showing growing interest in learning the king of sports from the Asian giant.
“Muchos talentos vienen de familias muy pobres, queremos que esas personas crezcan, a veces tenemos que luchar con las familias para que salgan adelante”, señaló a EFE GS Harry, director of una escuela que entrena a hombres y mujeres de todas las edades en New Delhi.
The academy has been around for more than two decades and although it does not have perfect facilities, generations of parents have taken their children to class at this school in the north of the Indian capital.
There, with a few coaches and two long lanes to perfect ball and batting, the news of a women’s cricket league is greeted with great hope.
“It’s a good initiative to motivate players like us. Maybe I can reach this level in two years,” Sumitra Sahni, one of her students, told EFE.
Hugo Barcia and Mikaela Viqueira