WPL 2024 review: Indian talents to the fore, notes for World Cup prep and branding lessons galore

While the first edition needed to be thrust up by performances from proven international pros, season two saw the Indian talent pool tap the overseas contingent on the shoulder and say, “We’ve got this. Take some rest.”

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Delhi Capitals in a tense final to win its maiden Women’s Premier League crown. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR/ The Hindu

A shattered sponsor car window, a team captain tackling a pitch invader, sprinklers turning on during a tense finish, and a title triumph for the Royal Challengers Bangalore — it’s safe to say that most of these things were not expected in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) this season. From unusual moments like those mentioned above to a final week that featured incredible turnarounds and outstanding performances from special players facing tough challenges, the league’s second chapter provided plenty of entertainment. 

One does not get to see a captain of Meg Lanning’s stature cry every day. There were eerie similarities to last season’s summit clash. Delhi Capitals won the toss, batted first, collapsed, and then took the defence to the last over before the low total came back to bite it. After a hellish loop of three hours where she fought tooth and nail to find victory in a hopeless place, Lanning and her side came up short. 

Even the most ardent RCB fan couldn’t help but feel for the decorated Australian. Yet another thing no one saw coming.  | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR/The Hindu

Glassy eyed at first, consolation from teammates opened the floodgates as she stood rooted to the dugout, a towel covering her face as the tears rolled down. These tears were shed in a country she has tormented internationally for a decade, en route to her five World Cup crowns as skipper (seven overall). However, on March 17, even the most ardent RCB fan couldn’t help but feel for the decorated Australian. Yet another thing no one saw coming. 

However, there was one change that everyone in the ecosystem predicted. While the first edition needed to be thrust up by performances from proven international pros, season two saw the Indian talent pool tap the overseas contingent on the shoulder and say, “We’ve got this. Take some rest.” 

Indian dividends 

Asha Sobhana Joy, true to her name, brought hope and happiness to RCB with a five-wicket haul early in the tournament, where she proved unplayable against UP Warriorz and then later became a vital cog in the RCB spin wheel alongside Shreyanka Patil, Sophie Molineux, and Georgia Wareham. 

Shreyanka surpassed last year’s impressive performances by winning the Purple Cap, despite a slow start to the season and a hairline fracture in her non-bowling arm. Sixteen-year-old Shabnam Shakil made her debut for the Gujarat Giants, becoming the youngest player in the league. Her talent was recognised by Charlotte Edwards, coach of the Mumbai Indians, who believed she would only improve with time. 

Shreyanka Patil finished with 13 wickets in eight matches

UP Warriorz’s pacer Saima Thakor didn’t accumulate as many wickets as she would have liked, but her spirited dismissal of Shafali Verma won her a fan in teammate Grace Harris. “I loved that fiery nature. If you want to last in international cricket, you need to have that in your belly and be able to take down the best. When Shafali Verma is walking down to you, you must be able to say, “Alright, get back in your crease!”. 

Before the start of the season, Giants’ vice-captain Sneh Rana told this publication that it’s time people stopped making age a barometer for cricket. The entire edition and the players in it worked overtime to uphold her words. Mumbai Indians’ pacer Shabnim Ismail, 35, bowled the fastest recorded delivery in women’s cricket — a 132.1 kmph ripper, sent darting at none other than Lanning. Asha is 33 and made heads turn, hoping to find more opportunities with what she put on display. Another MI star, all-rounder Sajeevan Sajana, is 29. After that last-ball six in the tournament opener, which turned the spotlight on her and her story, she hopes to make her way to an India cap. Gouher Sultana (UP Warriorz) and Ekta Bisht (Royal Challengers Bangalore) are 35 and 38, respectively, while Harmanpreet Kaur rang in her 35th birthday a day later with a monstrous unbeaten 48-ball 95 against the Giants. 

Old chinks return to haunt India 

This edition of the WPL was a bit of a mixed bag in terms of larger learnings for the Indian national team. While Deepti Sharma unlocked her power-hitting potential, finishing with the Most Valuable Player Award for scoring 295 runs and taking 10 wickets, Jemimah Rodrigues also managed to find a way to use her timing and placement-oriented technique to find the boundary better — both invaluable lessons for the India regulars heading into a T20 World Cup later this year. 

The women’s team has been struggling with its tail’s inability to contribute with the bat. In the 2017 World Cup final, India fell short against England by nine runs, with the lower-order batters, including Shikha Pandey, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, and Jhulan Goswami, only managing to score five runs in total during a relatively comfortable chase. This issue has also affected teams like Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals in the WPL, costing them a place in the final and the trophy. Instead of patiently accumulating runs, impulsive hitting and attempts to hit glory shots have been the preferred approach, something that head coach Amol Muzumdar must address. 

Crumbling in high presser situations is still a work in progress for India’s national team regulars. | Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar/ The Hindu

India opener and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana has been known to make similar errors, but in the final match, she adjusted her approach to score 31 runs off 39 balls. Typically, she might have been critical of herself for approaching what seemed like an easy chase in this manner. “We wanted to take it easy and get the top four to finish the job. We had time, and we didn’t want to lose wickets and trigger panic,” she revealed later. 

Smriti had a remarkable tournament as captain, too. Widely loved, easygoing, and not one to dictate terms, Smriti underlines that the factor that made all the difference in her leadership from last season to this one was time. 

“There was a meeting post-season last year with the management where we discussed what went wrong. We had just come off a World Cup and dove straight into the WPL. I need time to get to know people and the management... I am not that person. I, too, needed to understand where they came from. So, we spoke about a lot of important things for a couple of hours. The takeaway of the conversation was what I’ve said before - This is your team; build it the way you want and set the culture. That was a very big deal for me,” she revealed. 

In a tussle with countless subplots, perhaps the most crucial one was how Smriti beat Lanning at her own game. | Photo Credit: Sportzpics for WPL

Throughout the season, one saw an introverted Smriti being her most expressive self — with pumped-up celebrations, extreme disappointment when something didn’t pan out to plan, giving constant pep talks to her bowlers and fielders, and giving her players room to be their authentic selves. That comfort with leadership will come in handy for Harmanpreet Kaur, who relies on Smriti as her deputy in the national side. Smriti, the batter, being kinder to herself and judging a game by its merit and not the weight on her shoulders is an added plus. 

For others in the mix, like Saika Ishaque, the going might get tough. Saika got among the wickets a tad late in the season, but her fielding has been a cause for concern since the turn of the year. With the likes of Radha Yadav and even Tanuja Kanwer staking a claim to don the Indian jersey, some fierce competition is in the offing when selectors sit down to decide the squad headed to Bangladesh later this year. 

Balancing act 

The WPL’s inaugural season was held over two venues in the same city: the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai and the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. This year, the league moved out of the Maharashtra capital with two new hosts: the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru and the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. While the short boundaries and largely flat wickets made Bengaluru a batters’ paradise, with games largely decided by the toss of the coin, Delhi offered a closer contest between bat and ball. The surfaces used there were low and slow, with barely any bounce but plenty of turn on the odd night. Batters who learned to stay down and play to the conditions found a way to hit back, while others found themselves with their stumps in disarray. The testing conditions in Delhi also produced a final week with back-to-back nail-biting finishes, and the team that took that challenge in stride — Royal Challengers Bangalore — ultimately finished with its name inscribed on the trophy. 

Multiple pitches used at the same venue meant having a much shorter boundary on some nights, which sometimes made the game a bit lopsided in the batter’s favour, especially if they were left-handed. Lanning called for bigger boundaries, not just in terms of uniform dimensions but perhaps pushing the ropes back altogether. 

“It is a nightmare to have a 40m boundary on one side. That is one thing I haven’t necessarily enjoyed as a captain. We could look at potentially having slightly bigger boundaries. If it is even all the way around, that makes sense. But there’s so much more power and strength in the game now that people are clearing the ropes easily. I have lost a lot of sleep over games where there’s only a 40m boundary on one side, especially when there’s left-handers like Smriti. That makes it even worse,” she stated before the final. 

The franchises are constantly learning and striving to maximise their presence in the cricket ecosystem from a business standpoint. Although the Board of Control for Cricket in India centrally manages the venues, it has allowed two franchises, RCB and DC, to attract home fans. The support from Bengaluru’s crowd was unparalleled, and even in Delhi, the average spectator was often an RCB fan wearing different colours. It helps that the team’s biggest male star, Virat Kohli, hails from the city. The tournament also provided an opportunity for fans to get to know the female players better. 

“Our biggest star is Meg Lanning. Her achievements and resume speak for themselves. Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues — these are all very popular personalities in the sport; We’ve seen Jemimah’s engagement numbers on social media are better than most of her male counterparts. They are all important to the brand of Delhi Capitals,” Divyanshu Singh, COO - JSW Sports, tells Sportstar. 

Brand activations were key to WPL franchises this time around. UP Warriorz forged key partnerships with several successful commercial and social entities, including Kay Beauty (run by Katrina Kaif), UN Women’s ‘Generation Equality Ally’ drive, and others. 

Sanjay Adesara, CBO of Adani Sportsline, which owns Gujarat Giants, believes this trajectory is natural. 

“Four to five years ago, there were only a couple of names we were familiar with in the sport. Today, not just the Indian team but so many foreign players have become household names here. It’s natural to maximise that on and off the field,” he told this publication. 

Giants and Warriorz are the two franchises yet to gain experience hosting games in the cities that won the bids. Adesara believes it is too soon for an IPL-like home-and-away format in the WPL but believes it’s a case of when and not if. 

“It’s equally important for all teams to get matches back to the cities they’ve built their franchises around. With five teams, a home-and-away season becomes a big financial challenge early on. As the league grows, we might head in this direction with more certainty. Ahmedabad is more than ready to host the league in the best stadiums in the world,” he says. 

Building a fanbase is no easy task, whether you’re an existing IPL franchise branching out in the WPL or a fresh entity in the shark tank. Merchandising has been a key aspect of conversations in business boardrooms for these franchises, and while all five outfits are proceeding with caution on this front, each one is trying to strike a balance between commercial upswing and value for the consumer. 

Incidentally, apparel brand Puma released a film during the WPL that revealed that only 18 per cent of women who watch men’s cricket watch women’s games. | Photo Credit: Sportzpics for WPL

“There were good lessons for us from the experience of the World Cup. Adidas cracked it in terms of the product and price point. We’ve got Puma as a partner. We are the first Indian franchise to launch its jersey with the women’s team. They are also a part of our Kabaddi franchise. Brands are beginning to see value,” Singh explains. 

“From here, we need to look at strategies to promote sales. Everyone is buying on Instagram today, so maybe that’s an area for us to maximise. I am an eternal optimist. I won’t say sports merchandise won’t work in India. Decathlon, Puma, and others have shown the way and proved that the Indian customer is extremely value conscious, and if we provide a good product, there’s no reason why it won’t sell.” 

However, he believes there are other areas to prioritise, one of which is the fan experience at stadiums, particularly for women. Incidentally, apparel brand Puma released a film during the WPL that revealed that only 18 per cent of women who watch men’s cricket watch women’s games. Singh explains that, as JSW addressed this with football and Bengaluru FC’s stadium experience for women fans at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, the WPL is not far behind. 

“The Indian stadium experience needs a fresh outlook. My mom and sister don’t like coming to the stadium to watch a game as much. We rave about experiences of heading to an EPL match or other sports abroad. So, we want to do that here. With BFC, we have a healthy number of female supporters and have taken small steps to ensure their match-viewing comfort and safety are kept in mind, and that has been well received. Given that we stand at the centre of multiple sporting franchises, we have the unique opportunity to make a difference,” he said.