ICC’s women’s events from 2025 will have standalone sponsors, in a move that is expected to give the women’s tournaments greater prominence and make them distinct from that of the men. This should take effect from the 2025 ODI World Cup and include the 2026 T20 World Cup and the 2027 Champions Trophy, for which the ICC has partnered with Unilever with a view to expansion in the future.
“It is the first time we’ve offered commercial opportunities specifically for our women’s cricket events and we see this partnership as a significant marker of confidence in the standalone value of women’s cricket,” Anurag Dahiya, the ICC’s chief commercial officer, told ESPNcricinfo. “The decoupling signals that women’s cricket is no longer an add-on or a freebie that’s attached to men’s games, but a distinct high-potential commercial product.
“It’s a shift from advertisers saying we are subsidising women’s cricket to saying we are genuinely investing in it, and that’s because we believe that it can drive revenue, audiences, and relevance.”
Dahiya pointed to the increased interest in the women’s game over the last few years as a key driver for the decision. “We see an acceleration of growth across metrics, whether it’s in stadia or on broadcast and digital platforms. We’ve broken audience records steadily over the last few years.”
“We are quite fortunate that we’re not having to go and promote women’s cricket to an entirely new cohort of audiences. Our core men’s fans are just as interested in women’s cricket as well”
Anurag Dahiya, ICC’s chief commercial officer
At last year’s T20 World Cup, 15,935 people watched the group-stage match between India and Pakistan – a record crowd for a pool match at a women’s event – and the final, between New Zealand and South Africa, was sold out. That marked the third successive time that a women’s T20 final had been fully attended after Newlands in 2023 and the MCG in 2020, with the latter breaking the record for the largest in-stadia audience at a women’s cricket game – 86,174. In 2023, the ICC produced their most-watched T20 women’s World Cup with viewership figures increasing by 790% compared to 2020, and the body expects this trend to continue as the tournament begins to include more teams.
From 2026, 12 teams will contest the T20 World Cup, up from ten since 2016, while the addition of a T20 Champions Trophy from 2027 ensures there is a women’s ICC event every year.
“The expansion of events has also been giving us a lot of momentum,” Dahiya said. “Our calendar has introduced new events such as the Under-19 women’s T20 World Cup, the women’s Champions Trophy, and upcoming editions of the existing events, which will see more participating teams as well. There are more opportunities for players and more opportunities for our fans to enjoy the content from these apex events.”
Although Dahiya noted that women’s cricket had its “own identity, own rhythms, and own audience and fan profiles”, he said it also benefitted from an already existing spectator base in the men’s game, who have often transferred their interest across to the women’s game. “We are quite fortunate that we’re not having to go and promote women’s cricket to an entirely new cohort of audiences. Our core men’s fans are just as interested in women’s cricket as well.”
But there are also newer viewers, particularly in places like the United Kingdom, where women’s sport has been promoted as family-oriented while research from the Women’s Sport Trust showed that it is particularly appealing to young female fans.
Unilever runs what it calls a “positive beauty” campaign, and promotes its products through a diverse range of women of different races, ages, sizes and body shapes. “They have done some amazing work in breaking stereotypes and promoting an inclusive, authentic representation of women,” Dahiya said. “Challenging those stereotypes in the representation of women in sports, specifically in cricket, is core to our strategy but we also want the participants to be acknowledged for what they are first and foremost, which is high-performing athletes. That’s regardless of their diverse background, body types or personal stories. We want to promote the fantastic performances they give on the playing field.”
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s correspondent for South Africa and women’s cricket
