Women’s Premier League (WPL): History and Records

Womens Premier League (WPL) is an Indian cricketing league in which womens from all around the world took part. It is also the biggest league (in terms of money) for Women’s cricket. The inaugural season of this format came into existence on 2023, March 4. 

There are currently 5 teams in the scenario who compete against each other. Mumbai Indians (MI), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Delhi Capitals (DC), Gujarat Giants (GG) and UP Warriorz (UPW). The first three franchises have their men’s team in the Indian Premier League (IPL). 

This whole league is managed and owned by the BCCI. 

Format:

The format of this league is a  double round robin format in which each team plays against each other. There are currently 5 teams and they meet twice in the tournament. 

The top position team in the league round goes directly into the final whereas the team which finishes 2nd and 3rd in the league stage will play the eliminator and the winner of the eliminator will advance into the final. The remaining two teams who will be in the 4th and 5th spot will be eliminated and couldn’t advance into the next round. 

History:

The very first match that was played in India was a single match between two teams in 2018 and was known as the Women’s T20 League. Later in 2019 it was expanded to three teams and the three teams competed against each other and the two teams who got the most teams were seen in the final. Three teams were IPL Supernovas, IPL Trailblazers and IPL Velocity. 

Supernovas won the title three times whereas Trailblazers won one time and Velocity remained runner-up two times.

In 2022, then BCCI president Mr. Sourav Ganguly announced the female version of IPL by replacing the Women’s T20 League. Therefore in October, the Board finally announced WPL with 5 teams. It is formerly known as the Women’s Indian Premier League which later changed into Women’s Premier League as declared by the Jay Shah (BCCI secretary).      

Franchise Owners:

Teams: 

Mumbai Indians (MI): 

They were the inaugural champion of WPL 23. This team was led by Harmanpreet Kaur and they won 6 matches out of 8 and lost 2. They were 2nd in the league stage. As they finished 2nd in the league stage they played the playoff match against UPW, where they won the match by 72 runs. 

In the finals they defeated the league topper DC by 7 wickets and clinched the title in the very first season. Natalie Sciver-Brunt was the 2nd most run getter in the WPL 23 and most for Mumbai and scored 332 runs in 10 matches with a strike-rate of 140.08. She also hit 3 half centuries in the tournament. 

Whereas Hayley Mathews was the highest wicket taker in the tournament with 16 wickets in 10 matches. 

In 2024 since they have few amounts left for the mini auction, they spend a huge amount on South African bowler Shabnam Ismail after paying 1.20 crores. 

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB):

This team was led by one of the fantastic Indian openers Smriti Mandhana. But unfortunately the team ended at the 4th position in the very first season and couldn’t make it to the other round. 

At the start of the league, they lost 5 matches back to back and put them totally on the back foot. After that, Virat Kohli joined the squad and motivated them with his speech, as a result the royals won back to back 2 matches. But this was not enough to make their place to the next round. In 8 matches they won 2 and lost 6 matches. 

Sophie Devine was the most run getter for the team as she ended with 266 runs in 8 matches in the tournament and hit 2 half-centuries. The weakest point was their bowling which cost most of their matches. Shreyanka Patil was the highest scorer of the team with 7 wickets in 7 matches.  

Since they were struggling in the bowling department in the inaugural season, therefore in the 2024 mini auction they mostly went for bowlers and all-rounders. Ekta Bisht was the highest paid female cricketer to the Bangalore camp in the that auction.   

Delhi Capitals (DC):

Capitals (+1.856) finished in top position in the league stage and as a result they qualified for the finals straightaway. They won 6 matches out of 8 and lost 2, same as Mumbai but they had a better net run rate as compared to Mumbai (+1.711) and were topper of the table. 

Despite winning the toss in the finals, they were not able to put runs on the board and Delhi lost the final against Mumbai by 7 wickets. 

Capitals Meg Lanning was the highest run scorer in the 2023 tournament with 345 runs in 9 matches which includes 2 half-centuries. In the bowling department Shikha Pandey took most wickets for his team as she took 10 wickets in 9 matches.  

In the 2024 mini auction, Delhi went huge for Australian all-rounder Annabel Sutherland for 2 crores which was joint most in that auction along with Kashvee Gautam. 

Gujarat Giants (GG):

The inaugural season must not go their way as expected after they finished the season at the bottom of the table. They secured 2 wins in 8 matches and lost the remaining matches. They secured 4 points equal to Bangalore (-1.137) but had a low net run rate (-2.220), as a result they finished last. 

In both the departments they choked heavily. Most runs scored for Gujarat was Ashleigh Gardner who made 204 runs in 8 matches and Kim Garth was the most wicket-taker for his team after getting 11 wickets in 7 matches. 

In the 2024 mini auction they grabbed most players (10) in the auction. In the buyout goes for Kashvee Gautam who is an uncapped Indian player for 2 crores, which is the joint highest in the auction along with Annabel Sutherland. They also went for Australian all-rounder Phoebe Litchfield for 1 crore. They were the only franchise in that auction who went for more than one player for a crore. 

Uttar Pradesh Warriorz (UPW):

Uttar Pradesh had a decent performance in the inaugural season. They finished 3rd in the table and made their presence in the eliminator, where they lost the match against Mumbai by 72 runs and diminished the hope for the finals. 

They won 4 and lost 4 in their 8 matches. Tahila McGrath was the most run getter for the team with 302 runs in 9 matches in which she hit the most fifties (4) in the tournament. In the bowling department Sophie Ecclestone grabbed the most wickets (16) and was 2nd in the list of the bowlers. 

In the 2024 mini auction they went for the uncapped Indian batter Vrinda Mathur for 1.30 crores. The 2nd most for an uncapped Indian player. 

2023: 

The very first season of this tournament started on March 5, 2023. A huge crowd anticipation was seen in the Women’s League. Total 5 teams took part in it – MI, RCB, DC, GG and UPW. Whole tournament was based on a double round robin format. 

DC was the table topper in the league stage and made their place directly into the finals. Mumbai finished 2nd whereas UPW finished 3rd. Mumbai defeated Uttar Pradesh in the eliminator and went to the final where they defeated Delhi by 7 wickets and became the inaugural champion. 

Bangalore finished 4th and Gujarat finished last in the league round. 

All the matches were played in Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai and DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. 

2024:

The 2nd season of the tournament will start from 23rd February 2024. The number of teams will remain the same. This time the venues in which the matches will be played are M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru and Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi.   

The first match will be played between Mumbai and Delhi. There will be 22 matches in which 11 matches will be hosted by Bengaluru while the remaining 11 will be hosted by Delhi, the latter including the final. 
In this 2024 WPL mini auction, in which some uncapped Indian players were bought by the franchise in crores. Kashvee Gautam (2 crores) and Vrinda Dinesh (1.3 crores) were there in the list of uncapped Indian players. Annabel Sutherland grabbed the franchise for 2 crores.