The Women’s CPI events of 2025 will have independent sponsors, in a movement that is expected to provide female tournaments a greater prominence and make them different from those of men. This should go into force from the ODI 2025 World Cup and include the 2026 T20 World Cup and the Champions 2027 trophy, for which the CPI has been associated with Unilever with a view to expansion in the future.
“It is the first time that we offer commercial opportunities specifically for our Women’s cricket events and we see this association as a significant score of confidence in the independent value of women’s cricket,” said Anurag Dahiya, commercial director of the ICC of the CPI. “Decoupling indicates that female cricket is no longer a complement or a gift attached to men’s games, but a commercial high potential product.
“It is a change of advertisers who say we are subsidizing the Women’s cricket to say that we are really investing in it, and that is because we believe it can generate income, audiences and relevance.”
Dahiya pointed out the greatest interest in the female game in recent years as a key driver for the decision. “We see an acceleration of growth between metrics, either in stages or on transmission and digital platforms. We have broken the audience records in recent years.”
“We are quite fortunate that we do not have to go and promote female cricket to a completely new cohort of audiences. Our main men’s fans are also so interested in the Women’s cricket,”
Anurag Dahiya, commercial director of the ICC
In the T20 World Cup last year, 15,935 people saw the game in the group stage between India and Pakistan, a record crowd for a pool match in a female event, and the final, between New Zealand and South Africa, sold out. That marked the third successive time in which a female T20 final had been completely attended after Newlands in 2023 and the MCG in 2020, and the latter broke the record of the largest audience in the state in a women’s Crick game: 86,174. In 2023, the ICC produced its most viewed T20 World Cup with audience figures that increase by 790% compared to 2020, and the body expects this trend to continue as the tournament begins to include more equipment.
From 2026, 12 teams will play the T20 World Cup, compared to ten since 2016, while the incorporation of a 2027 T20 T20 Champions Trophy ensures that there is a women’s ICC event every year.
“The expansion of events has also been giving us a lot of impulse,” said Dahiya. “Our calendar has introduced new events, such as the U20 World Cup of Sub-19, the Champions Women’s trophy and the next editions of the existing events, which will also see more participating teams. There are more opportunities for players and more opportunities for our fans to enjoy the content of these Apex events.”
Although Dahiya said that the Women’s cricket had his “own identity, his own rhythms and audience profiles and fans,” he said that he also benefited from an existing spectators base in the male game, which has often transferred his interest to the women’s game. “We are quite fortunate that we do not have to go and promote female cricket to a completely new audience cohort. Our main fans of men are also so interested in women’s cricket.”
But there are also newer spectators, particularly in places like the United Kingdom, where women’s sport has been promoted as a family oriented, while Women’s Sport Trust research showed that it is particularly attractive to young fans.
Unilever directs what calls a “positive beauty” campaign and promotes their products through a wide range of women from different races, ages, sizes and body shapes. “They have done incredible job to break stereotypes and promote an inclusive and authentic representation of women,” Dahiya said. “To challenge these stereotypes in the representation of women in sports, specifically in Crickt, is essential for our strategy, but we also want participants to be recognized for what they are first, which are high -performance athletes. That is independently of their various background, body types or personal stories. We want to promote promoting the fantastic performance they give in the field of play.”
Fredid Mounda is the spancricinfo correspondent for South Africa and the Women’s cricket
