South Africans may not be as familiar with Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur as they are with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
But both, who are stars of women’s cricket as much as Rohit and Virat are in the men’s game, are responsible for driving the growth and investment in the sport that is making it an increasingly lucrative option for budding female athletes.
On Monday, the International Cricket Council announced a 10% increase in prize-money for this year’s T20 World Cup, with the 12 participating teams sharing $8.8m (about R144m). The tournament’s final will take place at Lord’s on July 5, with the winners taking home $2.3m (about R37.6m).
Such staggering figures illustrate the rapid growth in the sport, and also sponsors’ willingness to back it. Much of that support, as is the case in the men’s game, is driven by the increasing popularity of it in India.
Last year’s World Cup triumph, in which Harmanpreet’s India defeated the Proteas in a final in front of a packed stadium in Mumbai, was momentous. But arguably the inflection point for the women’s game came eight years earlier in Derby.
India eliminated Australia in the semifinal of the World Cup in July that year, with Harmanpreet scoring 171 off 115 balls. It was an innings that in India was described as the “1983 moment” of women’s cricket.
That refers to India’s men winning the World Cup that year, which turned cricket from a tiny British Empire pastime into the second-most watched sport on the planet.
India’s women would go on to lose the 2017 final narrowly to England, but Harmanpreet’s exploits had planted a seed.
The following year, the BCCI hosted the Women’s T20 Challenge, which took place parallel to the latter stages of the IPL. It was the foundation for the Women’s Premier League, which was launched in India in 2023. More than $550m (R9bn) was spent on the five franchises.
The two other established franchise leagues in England ― The Hundred ― and the Big Bash in Australia have seen their viewership increase. This year’s player auction for The Hundred ― the first since franchises in that league were sold to private entities, the majority of them Indian corporates ― saw the teams have a spending purse of £7m (R155.5m).
The increasing popularity of the women’s game has been beneficial for players from other countries. Nadine de Klerk, is a prime example; after being picked by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the WPL for about R1.13m, she was purchased for R3.7m in The Hundred by the London Spirit.
For young players like Kayla Reyneke, who has made a stunning start to her international career, the five-match T20 series that starts on Friday offers the opportunity to rub shoulders with genuine superstars and some of her heroines.
“I want to learn as much as possible. I’d like to chat to a few of them ... I think I’d go crazy,” said Reyneke, who mentioned Mandhana and Harmanpreet as two of the players she’s most excited about sharing the field with.
She is aware not to get carried away by her enthusiasm. “It’s India, if you play the game, you will sink into a big hole, so you want to play the ball.”
It’s a unique test for the South African players, who besides skipper Laura Wolvaardt and Marizanne Kapp, can’t comprehend the kind of superstar status that Harmanpreet, Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues hold.
It creates a unique dynamic and background for a series that is crucial for South Africa, who are looking to go one step further than they’ve managed in the last two T20 World Cups.
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