WPL wins

Yes, the crowds line up for women’s cricket

Today, the finale of the Women’s Premier League, season 3, will be played at Brabourne stadium, Mumbai. Where’s the buzz been? At the stadiums, across four cities. In Bengaluru, enthusiastic crowding for entry has led to comparisons with kumbh mela. RCB fandom at WPL has given the IPL one a run for its money. Vadodara has shown avid home support to Ashleigh Gardner led Gujarat Giants. Mumbai’s been a keen cheerleader since season 1, when it played the solo host. Lucknow’s getting into the game. But the question in all this is, how much do we expect how fast?

The first match of the football WSL in England in 2011 was played in front of just 2,500 people. Today, it has a $84mn broadcast deal. Glass-half-fullers say this is still a fraction of the Premier League. But besides being played across schools and varsities, women’s football there is now a proper career across playing, coaching and management.

Harsh quizzing about when WPL will deliver a Champions Trophy is really missing the point – a nine-year-old girl asked by TOI about her cricketing hero, named pacer Renuka Singh. Women’s cricket is now developing a franchise following. A deeper bench of players are becoming idols. Whether the bench is deep enough to expand to more teams and cities next year has to be objectively assessed. But to assess how WPL’s done so far, just listen to the cheers tonight.