The inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League or the WPL began in 2023 and was organised by the BCCI. Named and modelled after its famous big brother the IPL (Indian Premier League), it transformed women’s cricket in India forever. Today, it has quickly become the world’s premier franchise-based T20 cricket league. The tournament features five teams: Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz.The inaugural edition of the WPL in 2023 was won by the Mumbai Indians, led by captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who defeated the Delhi Capitals, led by Meg Lanning, in the final by seven wickets. A fun fact is that the Delhi Capitals have reached all the finals in the history of the WPL, only to lose in all of them.If 2017 provided the sparks for the fire to be lit, 2023 helped it become a bonfire when the WPL was introduced in India. Once empty stands were transformed into packed stadiums in Mumbai and Bengaluru, television viewership escalated into millions, and sponsorship deals touched the roof with hundreds of crores. Cricketers who once pinched their pennies for train fare or demanded train reimbursements now flew to cricketing venues. Women cricketers went under the hammer in auctions and were now worth crores. The scene just exploded! Harmanpreet Kaur (Mumbai Indians) and Smriti Mandhana (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) have captained their teams to WPL glory twice each.The opening edition of WPL recorded the highest viewership for any women’s event globally. More than 10 million people tuned in for the grand finale between the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Capitals. Viacom18 bought the media rights for the tournament for a mind-blowing $116 million, even before WPL 1 details had been finalised. This made the WPL the second-most expensive women’s league by way of media rights, just behind the WNBA, the Women’s National Basketball Association in the United States. The first 14 games of the WPL were viewed by 50 million people across television and digital platforms, displaying the remarkable interest in women’s cricket in India. In 2026, it took just 15 games for the cumulative TV viewership of WPL to touch the 103-million viewer mark.The first edition of the WPL stood out because it was the richest women’s tournament in cricket and one could witness the best talent in international women’s cricket on one platform in India. The three largest Indian business houses offered the WPL the crucial financial support it needed to give women’s cricket a major boost in India. The Tata Group was the title sponsor for the inaugural season, with subsidiaries like Tata Capital and Tata Motors providing key support. The Adani Group placed the highest bid on the table by acquiring Gujarat Giants for a whopping Rs 1,289 crore. Reliance Industries bagged the Mumbai Indians franchise for 810 crore.Earlier, Indian cricket fans could name only a few Indian women cricketers, but today they can easily rattle off several names from the World Cup-winning squad. Just like the IPL made the Indian stars household names when they started playing, the same is expected of the WPL. The packed stadiums for the WPL indicate that women’s cricket is here to stay in India. After their successful World Cup campaign, the women cricketers of India were suddenly transformed into stars. They appeared on the cover of magazines, were spotted on television shows and endorsed brands on hoardings and billboards. The total brand value of the Indian women’s cricket team went up by almost 30%. Suddenly, the Harmanpreets, the Mandhanas and the Rodrigues were the most desired by Indian brands. Apart from the traditional women’s beauty and jewellery brands like Lakme, L’Oréal, De Beers and PC Jeweller, which came in as the sponsors of WPL, other prestigious brands from varied industries like health and wellness, automobiles, FMCG, technology and gadgets competed with each other to sponsor the new stars of Indian cricket. This is in lieu of the new women audiences in the sport, along with the traditional male viewers that have dominated the sport for so long in India.De Beers Group and BKT Tyres became the sponsors of the most successful WPL team to date – the Mumbai Indians. After Jemimah Rodrigues was appointed the captain of the Delhi Capitals, it generated massive sponsor interest in the WPL franchise after her heroics in the World Cup. The story is the same across all five franchises as existing sponsors wish to be retained and others want to hop on to the WPL juggernaut. The expansion of the WPL ecosystem is an encouraging sign as everyone wants a piece of the action. However, some may argue that even with equal pay among male and female cricketers, the WPL auction does not fetch its stars anywhere near the astronomical amounts offered to their male counterparts in the IPL. Consider these numbers: top players like Smriti Mandhana, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Ashleigh Gardner were retained by their respective WPL franchises for a record price of Rs 3.5 crore. Compare this with the IPL prices, where superstar Virat Kohli was retained by RCB for Rs 21 crore before the 2025 mega auction. So, while there’s a wide gulf to be bridged between the WPL and the IPL in terms of remuneration, one must not forget that the WPL is still at a nascent stage compared to the IPL. Also, with the increase in popularity and revenue, the women cricketers will face more media and fan scrutiny, just like their male counterparts. They will be judged constantly with each performance, have to fight to keep their place in the franchise team and work much harder to play in the national team. Only this can strengthen women’s cricket in India.Excerpted with permission from Miracle Women: Guts to Glory ... Their Ascent, Their Story, Swayam Ganguly, Hachette India.