The Women’s Premier League has everybody humming. To say I’ve by no means skilled the rest find it irresistible ahead of can be a sarcasm. Everything here’s hyped to the max – coaching, conferences, video games, crowds, maximum of the entire media. Everywhere we flip, there are cameras filming. At Royal Challengers Bangalore the ambition is to be as large a emblem, with as large a social media footprint, as Real Madrid or FC Barcelona. And at a franchise so neatly arranged and bold as RCB, that suggests 18 cricket avid gamers and 20 content material creators.
In India, cricket is its personal entity. When one thousand million other folks observe, the sport’s price is gigantic. To know the primary 12 months of TV rights for the WPL was once larger than the primary IPL is exceptional.
The public sale itself was once the most unearthly factor and I hated each 2nd. It felt like horse buying and selling. I used to be eager about Ash Gardner so a couple of folks had been on her Facetime name to her mum, together with her brother doing reside conversion charges because the bidding were given to $558,000. We’d identified there could be an obscene degree of coin however part one million greenbacks? It was once so bizarre.
As for me, I knew I’d be in opposition to the top, with the nobodies and bowlers nobody cares about. Tahlia McGrath informed me to sit down down. “You’ve got to watch to see if you get sold,” she mentioned. I felt bizarre however I switched it on. When I noticed I used to be unsold after the primary spherical I switched it off once more. But RCB trainer Ben Sawyer mentioned: “I don’t want to jinx it but wait till the last round.” At that level I’d have resigned myself both method. Not picked up? That sucks however I am getting to head house. But then I were given picked up (for $69,000) and that supposed every other month clear of house.
The overriding feeling was once certainly one of pleasure. For me it was once massive. Now I’m on the latter finish of my profession, the WPL is a superb long term choice after I retire from Australian cricket. I sought after to play, get my foot within the door, be a part of the primary ever WPL and feature my identify written in historical past. It was once so thrilling, a super step for me and my cricket. But to be fair, I used to be torn too – the WPL additionally supposed an additional month clear of my spouse and kid. Luckily, they absolutely supported me.
And there is a larger prize at stake. To play professionally we wish to be paid professionally. We ask an excessive amount of of our home avid gamers for what we pay, however a part of the explanation Australia is so dominant at the international level is as a result of we’ve got primed the following wave so neatly within the home scene that the transition to the nationwide aspect is seamless . Money buys ability and it buys time. We win World Cups as a result of we will educate 24-7. So if a lady these days has to make a choice from the AFLW or cricket, the cash in WPL makes a compelling case: how may you no longer be lured?
The different price of the WPL is equality. The WPL interview us the similar method, hype us as a lot and cheer us as loudly as the boys’s festival. But is the distance remaining? On one degree, Australia is doing wonders for us, as just about full-time pros, to have the collection of cricket as a profession. Yes it is growth and we are getting higher paid, however so are males. So the good divide stays. India’s WPL is a huge soar. Now we would like affiliate countries to invite: what is our subsequent transfer?
Will this filter out down? In Australia, the WBBL has modified the whole lot. I first picked up a ball at age 11 and I hadn’t been uncovered to cricket ahead of that. Now, because of the WBBL on TV, participation charges in ladies beneath 12 are surging and pathway techniques are opening up. I’m an suggest for equality in all walks of existence and the parity we are getting within the WPL is the generational alternate girls are striving for in existence on a world scale. That’s bloody cool. We’re inspiring boys too. Cricket-loving youngsters these days see avid gamers no longer genders. It’s gorgeous.
When you spot me on the best of my bowling mark, I glance tremendous frightening. But in the back of the scenes I’ve spent a large number of time reflecting on how large this WPL is. People assume as a result of we play for Australia and win World Cups a match like this is not necessary, however that is improper. A core price of this Australian crew is to develop the sport globally (despite the fact that some assume we are not doing that by way of successful so frequently). We need girls to be robust and ladies’s cricket to be robust. We need cricket to be a profession selection for women. It’s what we owe to the sport we like.