Record Growth in Women’s Cricket
Attendance and viewing figures at the recent T20 World Cup reached unprecedented levels, highlighting the expanding appeal of women’s cricket worldwide. The sport’s growth is now outpacing the men’s game in many regions, according to Sanjog Gupta, chief executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC), who has addressed concerns about the organisation’s reliance on the Indian market for expansion.
The first women’s Test match at Lord’s, scheduled to begin on Friday between England and India, follows a sellout crowd at the venue just five days earlier. Gupta expressed enthusiasm not only for established cricket markets but also for emerging ones.
“Cricket is assuming cultural significance among women in certain countries like Brazil where football is really big,” he says. “Women gravitate towards cricket as a means of finding their own identity, and a platform for belonging.
“The fact it’s a team sport and that it intrinsically entails social connections lends itself to driving a sense of belonging for a community which feels a little cut off from certain facets of their culture.
“In emerging markets, women’s cricket is playing the leading role in driving participation and also the elevation of performance standards. You see that the ranking of the women’s teams in these countries is higher than the ranking of the men’s teams. It’s perhaps easier for a women’s team ranked 25 or 30 in the world to climb quickly, so it’s a virtuous circle.”
Expansion of Global Competitions
The T20 World Cup expanded to 12 teams for the first time this summer, with plans to increase to 16 teams by 2030. Additionally, the inaugural Women’s Champions Trophy is set to take place in Sri Lanka next year, aligning the women’s tournament cycle with the men’s four-year global schedule for the first time.
Notably, the Women’s T20 World Cup was played alongside the men’s competition as curtain-raisers as recently as 2016, marking a significant shift in the sport’s profile and independence.
Recent Tournament Success and Records
Australia secured a seven-wicket victory against England in the final last Sunday, denying the hosts a repeat of their iconic 2017 win at Lord’s. Despite this, the tournament was a major success by multiple measures, even with competition from the men’s football World Cup and the high-profile Ben Stokes incident that overshadowed the men’s home Test series defeat by New Zealand.
The tournament attracted 245,815 spectators, surpassing the previous attendance record by over 100,000. Sky Sports, the UK rights holder, reported more than 15 million viewer hours during the event. The final drew a record crowd of 28,887, with ticket prices reaching up to £60, making it the highest-grossing women’s cricket match ever and generating over £1 million in ticket sales.
Globally, growth was even more pronounced. Viewing figures in India for the group-stage match between India and Pakistan at Edgbaston, attended by 18,000 spectators, exceeded the total viewership for the entire T20 World Cup two years prior. Over 25 million viewers tuned in via JioHotstar in India, with the match generating 1.1 billion minutes of watch time.
“We’ve seen every metric track significantly ahead of previous benchmarks,” Gupta says. “There’s been a big shift in mindsets all over the world and it’s era defining. Women’s World Cups now are as big for the Indian market as the 1983 World Cup was at that time for men’s cricket.”
Financial and Market Challenges
India’s financial dominance presents challenges within the ICC revenue distribution, with 40% of revenues allocated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), while the West Indies receive just 4%. This disparity was highlighted by West Indies captain Hayley Matthews following her team’s semi-final defeat by Australia.
The strength of the Indian television market also raises concerns about tournament integrity. For example, while Harmanpreet Kaur’s team performed strongly, a fixed draw guaranteed India a place in the first semi-final if they advanced, which delayed planning for other teams.
Gupta, a former chief executive of JioStar who negotiated the current $3 billion Indian rights deal with the ICC and is now seeking an extension, defends such arrangements as necessary and ongoing.
The viewership figures support this approach. Despite competing with major sporting events like the men’s World Cup, Wimbledon, the British Grand Prix, and the Tour de France, Sky Sports’ peak UK audience of 678,000 for the final was only a fraction of the millions watching in India.
“We always look to balance the global viewing audience with the audience in countries which are hosting the event,” Gupta explains. “That’s why it was pre-decided that one semi-final would be played in a time slot which makes it available in prime time in South Asia. It will be the same for the next tournament in Australia in 2028.
“It’s not to favour India, but to try to help build the market. At our last event, the men’s T20 World Cup this year, the viewership in India was 60% of the global TV audience.
“You could argue that if India had not won the World Cup, the share of viewership may have been 52% to 55%, but you still have half the world. We’re trying to serve two worlds with all of our events – local and global.”
