In Oc­to­ber 2019, the Eng­lish Crick­et Board an­nounced a fund­ing boost for women’s crick­et of 20 mil­lion pounds over two years to in­crease grass­roots par­tic­i­pa­tion and make crick­et a more gen­der-bal­anced sport. The ECB launched a 10-point plan to fo­cus on in­creased girls’ sports par­tic­i­pa­tion from Un­der-11 to Un­der-17.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, 40 elite play­ers re­ceived full-time pro­fes­sion­al do­mes­tic con­tracts.

Sev­er­al oth­er crick­et­ing na­tions are fol­low­ing suit, and the re­sults are show­ing. The Board of Con­trol for Crick­et in In­dia (BC­CI) launched the Women’s Pre­mier League (WPL) Twen­ty20 crick­et fran­chise in March 2023.

The Mum­bai In­di­ans took the first rein of the ti­tle. WPL In­dia crick­et is a ground­break­ing event that has had a tremen­dous im­pact on women’s crick­et. The BC­CI’s ded­i­ca­tion to pro­mot­ing the women’s game and pro­vid­ing a plat­form for fe­male crick­eters to show­case their tal­ents is ap­plaud­able.

With the grow­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty of crick­et world­wide, women’s crick­et must re­ceive the same recog­ni­tion and sup­port as men.

WPL In­dia has helped to bridge the gap and cre­ate a lev­el play­ing field for fe­male crick­eters. The tour­na­ment has pro­vid­ed a plat­form for young tal­ent to emerge and has al­so helped to in­spire a new gen­er­a­tion of fe­male crick­eters.

Over­all, the WPL is a game-chang­er for women’s crick­et, and its im­pact will be long-last­ing. One used to hear spec­ta­tors don’t come out the same way for women’s crick­et as men’s; how­ev­er, the WPL de­bunked that myth with filled sta­dia at all match­es.

Na­tions such as In­dia, Aus­tralia, and Eng­land have more re­sources than the West In­dies. But as we reimag­ine women’s crick­et in the 21st cen­tu­ry, one must find so­lu­tions and ac­tive­ly pur­sue them.

One idea could be to en­hance the com­pet­i­tive spir­it of women’s crick­et by fos­ter­ing more in­ter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tions and cre­at­ing more glob­al tour­na­ments.

A more sub­stan­tial in­ter­na­tion­al cal­en­dar com­pris­ing high-stakes tour­na­ments will al­low women crick­eters to show­case their skills on a grand stage.

The sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fit will be an im­prove­ment in the over­all stan­dard of the game and cap­ti­vat­ing au­di­ences world­wide from fierce bat­tles and ex­tra­or­di­nary dis­plays of tal­ent. It is im­per­a­tive to chal­lenge pre­vail­ing stereo­types and gen­der bi­as­es with­in the crick­et­ing com­mu­ni­ty.

We need to fos­ter an en­vi­ron­ment where women crick­eters are re­spect­ed, cel­e­brat­ed, and giv­en the same recog­ni­tion as their male coun­ter­parts.

It means break­ing down the bar­ri­ers that hin­der their progress, from dis­crim­i­na­to­ry se­lec­tion process­es to un­equal pay. We can on­ly trans­form women’s crick­et and make it a com­pet­i­tive force by cham­pi­oning equal­i­ty.

The eco­nom­ic im­pact of women’s crick­et glob­al­ly is rel­a­tive­ly small com­pared to the men’s game.

Women’s crick­et has yet to achieve the same lev­el of com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion, me­dia cov­er­age, and spon­sor­ship as men’s crick­et, which re­sults in low­er rev­enues and eco­nom­ic im­pact. How­ev­er, the eco­nom­ic im­pact of women’s crick­et is grow­ing, es­pe­cial­ly in coun­tries like Aus­tralia, Eng­land, and In­dia, where the sport is gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty among au­di­ences and in­vestors.

The 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, held in Aus­tralia, gen­er­at­ed around AUD 32 mil­lion.

The host coun­try’s eco­nom­ic im­pact in­clud­ed AUD 18.7 mil­lion in di­rect vis­i­tor spend­ing and AUD 12.7 mil­lion in me­dia val­ue.

Sim­i­lar­ly, Aus­tralia’s Women’s Big Bash League (WB­BL) has been a com­mer­cial suc­cess, with sol­id at­ten­dance fig­ures, me­dia cov­er­age, and spon­sor­ships.

In 2019, the WB­BL con­tributed AUD 18.7 mil­lion to the Aus­tralian econ­o­my, ac­cord­ing to a study by De­loitte. By in­vest­ing in these ar­eas, women’s crick­et can be­come a more lu­cra­tive in­dus­try, cre­at­ing more op­por­tu­ni­ties for play­ers, broad­cast­ers, spon­sors, and fans.

In con­clu­sion, the time has come to reimag­ine women’s crick­et in the 21st cen­tu­ry.

By in­vest­ing in in­fra­struc­ture, in­creas­ing me­dia cov­er­age, pro­vid­ing fi­nan­cial sup­port, nur­tur­ing tal­ent, fos­ter­ing in­ter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tions, and chal­leng­ing gen­der bi­as­es, we can em­pow­er women in this male-dom­i­nat­ed sport.

Let us unite to pur­sue a fu­ture where women’s crick­et stands proud­ly be­side men’s—com­pet­i­tive, ex­cit­ing, and cel­e­brat­ed. To­geth­er, we can rewrite the nar­ra­tive and cre­ate a lega­cy of equal­i­ty in crick­et.

Aman­da Reifer, Deputy Dean, Fac­ul­ty of Sport, The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies. The two-part se­ries is from the Sir Con­rad Hunte Memo­r­i­al Foun­da­tion Pan­el Dis­cus­sion, “The ap­pli­ca­tion of the Val­ues and Prin­ci­ples of Sir Con­rad Hunte,” on May 19, 2023, at the 3Ws Oval, The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, Cave Hill Cam­pus, Bar­ba­dos.