'Some were more interested in WPL than men's IPL': Harmanpreet Kaur

Women’s cricket had a watershed moment earlier in the year when the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) was played. After four years of testing the waters with Women’s T20 Challenge, BCCI went all in with the women’s T20 league competition.

India national team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur believes the tournament had more excitement than the men’s Indian Premier League (IPL) due to the curiosity factor.

“WPL was a game changer for us. That tournament was so good. Everyone loved it back home. The response we got… trust me, some of the audience was more interested in women’s IPL than men’s because it was something new to watch,” Kaur said on Daggers & Lyds podcast.

“They really liked it. Hopefully we’ll add more teams. I don’t know when it will happen but eventually it will. We do have very good talent back home. Those girls should get this opportunity.”

WPL featured five teams in round robin and playoffs format with Mumbai Indians clinching the tournament. The five franchises were sold for a staggering ₹4669 crores for a five year period. In the player auction, Smriti Mandhana emerged as the costliest buy at ₹3.4 crore, snapped up by Royal Challengers Bangalore. Viacom18 acquired the global media rights for TV and digital broadcasts for ₹951 crore.

Kaur, part of the Trent Rockets squad in the Women’s Hundred competition in England, spoke about playing T20 leagues outside India. “When I first got to play WBBL, it was a great opportunity because before that we were all playing domestic cricket. There were no overseas players involved. Then I came for KIA league, then I got to play with English players. You need such opportunities.”

The 34-year-old also talked about the moment when Jhulan Goswami closed her storied career at Lord’s. “It was a very emotional moment for me. Growing up for us, she was the cricketer leading the Indian women’s cricket team and when I got the opportunity to play with her, she was always very nice to me. She taught me how I can adopt to international cricket,” she said of her last trip to England.

“When you have a friend like that, a teammate like that, who can make you learn things quickly, you always respect her. When we got to know that it was her last series, we wanted to win it at all costs. We were really pumped up. We wanted to play our best cricket for her. And I’m really happy that we did really well, won all three games.”