The Indian Premier League (IPL) is the second-most valuable sporting league in the world on a per match basis, says the latest World Cricket Association’s Report published on March 26. The World Cricketers’ Association is the global players’ body in cricket, collectively representing the majority of the world’s best cricketers across 15 countries.
The 18th season of the billion-dolor league got underway last week in Kolkata and will run until May 25.
The report further states that cricket is the third most popular sport globally in terms of fans.
After surveying 328 current men’s and women’s pro players from across 16 countries, interviewing 64 senior stakeholder representatives from across all major cricket countries and analyzing data, the report has concluded that T20 is increasingly becoming the dominant format of cricket globally in terms of scheduling volume, revenue, player and fan sentiment.
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It also concluded that there is increasing trend of common franchise ownership across various domestic T20 league for example MI Franchise owns four teams. These teams are Mumbai Indians (in IPL) , MI NewYork (in MLC), MI Cape Town (in SA T20) and MI Emirates ( in ILT20).
According to the report over $700million came in private investment into The Hundred franchises in 2025. The Hundred is is a professional cricket league in the United Kingdom played in 100-ball format. Further it noted that $500 million of private investment was poured into Women’s Premier League (WPL) franchises in 2023. The WPL is the women’s T20 cricket league based out of India.
The report also highlighted some threats that cricket is suffering across men’s, women’s, red ball and white
ball formats. The threats that loom over cricket are fragmentation of the sport, inconsistency, a lack of collaboration, limited context for most international cricket, and short-term regional thinking.
It concluded by stating that it is important to act now, rather than waiting for a full- blown crisis to be the catalyst for change.
Prakhar Sachdeo
The Sportz Planet Desk
