Just about a decade ago, women’s cricket was an amateur affair — most cricketers held day jobs and cricket was more of a side gig. There was simply not enough money in the game to make it a viable career option. With the WPL becoming one of the largest T20 leagues in the world, things will hopefully get better.
Money aside, WPL will give women cricketers the opportunity to play the game they love and showcase their talent like never before. This league has been long overdue and now that it is finally set to be launched, there is justifiable enthusiasm over it. The amount of funds the tournament has drawn even before a ball has been bowled is a bonus — and a strong statement to all those who “worried” about the “financial viability” of a women’s T20 league.
There has been no shortage of praise for the BCCI and its major officeholders for bringing this change. While some of the praise is well-deserved, it should not obfuscate a larger issue about cricketers’ payments. While the BCCI is all set to make a lot of money from day one of the tournament and the teams have the potential to rake in big profits in a few years (much like the IPL in its nascence), players get a small slice of the pie. The WPL salary cap has been set at Rs 12 crore. While this is larger than most T20 leagues in the world and more than what women cricketers have ever made in cricket, it is minuscule in comparison to the proportion of total revenue that franchises will bring in.
To put things in perspective, just the broadcast rights for a single WPL game will bring in Rs 7.09 crore for teams. Add to it sponsorship money, ticket sales and other commercial revenue opportunities, and a single game might well bring in over Rs 12 crore just for the teams playing. This means that only two games could offset all the players’ salary costs for a whole team.
This is not a problem unique to the WPL. Even in the IPL, where the salary cap for 2023 was pegged at Rs 95 crore, players do not make nearly as much money as they should. As per cricket finance expert K Shriniwas Rao, IPL players get paid around “22 to 23 per cent” of the total central revenue that the league generates. If one adds to its other team-specific revenue drivers (like ticket sales, team sponsors, merchandising, etc.), this percentage becomes even lower.
For comparison, in the National Basketball Association or NBA, players take home 50 per cent of all basketball-related revenue; in the National Football League or NFL, the players’ share is pegged at 48 per cent; and in the English Premier League or EPL, players’ wages can be even higher as there is no salary cap.
Without players to play the games we love, putting their body and mind in line for our pleasure, there will be no sport. In many ways, they are the sport. And for that they should take home the lion’s share of the revenue. For far too long, cricket administrations have held too much leverage over players and their situations. Before the IPL and other franchise leagues, players did not have any avenue to earn. Now they are earning, but not enough and definitely not equitably.
It is easy to scoff at the lavish lifestyles of top cricketers, but most people who pick up a bat and ball will never reach the top. This may be due to a combination of luck, lack of talent or their material situation. And for these players, the cricket administrators can do more — not from a charity perspective but from a sense of justice. This is why, as cricket starts bringing in more and more money, players will have to unionise to get their fair share. That is what happened in the NBA and the NFL — and look how much more those players earn.
As India gears up for the inaugural WPL auction, just remember: While the numbers that the auction will throw up may seem big, and they are big for cricketers who have played for scraps until now, it is still a small percentage of the total money that the BCCI and team owners will get. For those who actually put in work to produce the commodity that is cricket, it is far from a fair bargain.
arjun.sengupta@expressindia.com
