India’s omnipotent and prosperous cricket governing physique simply obtained richer by $572 million after the 5 groups in its new ladies’s T20 match had been offered.

In what has been described as a “landmark” second for ladies’s cricket, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) introduced the astronomical sale of 5 franchises comprising the upcoming Women’s Premier League, which can be performed in March and have high gamers from world wide.

India, undisputedly the game’s powerhouse, had been sluggish to develop ladies’s cricket – properly behind trendsetters Australia and England – earlier than making steps in 2018 by launching a three-team Women’s T20 Challenge staged alongside the lads’s money-spinning IPL.

That has paved the way in which for a ladies’s counterpart to the money-spinner Indian Premier League, which has turned cricket on its head and lured the most effective gamers on the earth on multi-million greenback contracts.

A two-month window can be devoted to the match underlining the IPL’s stranglehold over the game.

There is influential backing within the WPL, together with homeowners from IPL franchises Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Gautam Adani, who’s the fourth richest particular person on the earth, in accordance with Forbes’ real-time billionaires list.

It is on the again of Viacom 18 forking out 9.51 billion Indian rupees ($116 million) for the media rights for the subsequent 5 years. The worth per-game is round $1 million.

“The bidding for teams of inaugural WPL broke the records of the inaugural men’s IPL in 2008,” BCCI boss Jay Shah wrote on social media.

“This marks the beginning of a revolution in women’s cricket and paves the way for a transformative journey ahead not only for our women cricketers but for the entire sports fraternity.”

There is a whole lot of cynicism over the motives of cash-flush BCCI, typically with good motive, and undoubtedly its chiefs see a possible goldmine within the WPL notably noting the success of the 2020 ladies’s T20 World Cup and Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League.

But with India’s mighty backing, the WPL is ready to be a game-changer for ladies’s cricket with the wage caps of groups possible greater than the lads’s Big Bash League in Australia, the place groups have round $1 million to spend on its roster.

If it does create an anticipated seismic shift in ladies’s cricket in India and past, the WPL is ready to be a signature growth within the tenure of Shah, who’s essentially the most {powerful} administrator in cricket.

Shah’s heft is rapidly rising and he doubles because the boss of Asian Cricket Council which is amid a renewal. He was additionally the powerbroker behind the scenes of the current ICC chair election, in accordance with sources, leading to Shah taking on the all-important finance and business affairs committee.

Shah has additionally been included within the working group heading the ICC’s Olympic bid for cricket’s inclusion on the 2028 Los Angeles Games, in accordance with sources.

Industry insiders consider Shah will ultimately put his hand up for ICC chair having determined to not contest final November’s election.

He’s clearly going to be within the thick of the motion within the years forward, however spearheading the WPL would possibly find yourself being Jay Shah’s most vital feat.