Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Smriti Mandhana backed the idea of having a multi-city format for the Women's Premier League (WPL) ahead of the WPL 2024 auction on December 9.
India’s vice-captain Mandhana expressed her enthusiasm for the potential multi-city format and reflected on the successes of the WPL.
Smriti Mandhana said at RCB Innovation Lab's Leaders Meet India summit: “It would be great to have WPL in the multi-city format. I think that might be the next step and I am sure the people right here would look into it and make it happen. As an RCB fan, I would love to play in Chinnaswamy where people are chanting ‘RCB RCB’ and just to be in that environment.”
She added, “That is something which is one step ahead for us that it (multi-city format) can reach to places where women's cricket hasn't reached and to get new audience going into women's cricket.”
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Speaking about the WPL 2024 auction, she noted: “A lot of thoughts have gone into what kind of combinations we need in terms of releases or retention. So, we are looking forward to the WPL auctions and hopefully, we get the players who we are looking forward to getting.”
Sharing her thoughts on the progress of women’s sports in India, Mandhana said: “Women in India are doing amazing stuff in the last five to 10 years not only in women's cricket but in women's sport in general. If you see the last Olympics or Commonwealth or Asian Games, the kind of medals women's athletes have got for the country is a big inspiration for a lot of smaller city girls out there to pursue their passion.
I think women's sports in general should be treated separately and by doing that they can definitely sell a lot of things in terms of the ticketing or the digital rights.”
She signed off by saying, “The only thing that we could invest in is the grassroots level of women's sport in general because a lot of interest is developed with the Indian Women's team or the WPL tournament. Invest more so that we get a lot more cricketers women cricketers.”
(With IANS Inputs)
