Women's Cricket Rise: From Empty Grounds to 86,000 Roaring Fans
86KFans at MCG 2020 final
180MPeople watched 2017 WC Final
$570MWPL franchise value 2023
Let's start here
Nobody gave them a chance. They did not care.
Women have been playing cricket since 1745. That is almost 280 years ago. But for most of that time, nobody was watching. No big contracts. No packed stadiums. No TV deals. Just women who loved the game playing it anyway, in empty grounds, with no reward except the game itself.
That world is gone now. Women's cricket today has sold-out stadiums, million-dollar contracts, global superstars, and fans in every country on earth. This is the story of how that happened.
And it is one of the best stories in all of sport.
And it is one of the best stories in all of sport.
"We didn't wait for the world to believe in us. We just kept playing — until they had no choice but to watch."
— Meg Lanning, former Australia captainThe journey
How women's cricket grew year by year
It did not happen overnight. It was built slowly, game by game, by women who refused to give up on their dream even when the world was not paying attention.
1934Frst ever women's Test match
England vs Australia. The first official women's cricket match at international level. Almost nobody noticed. But it was the beginning of everything.
2009Women's T20 World Cup begins
The shorter format changed everything. T20 cricket is fast, exciting, and easy to watch. For the first time, women's cricket had a format that TV audiences loved.
2017
England vs India final — 180 million viewers
The Women's World Cup final was watched by 180 million people worldwide. Cricket boards finally understood the audience was there. It had always been there. Nobody had looked for it before.
2020
MCG — 86,174 people show up
The Women's T20 World Cup Final. Australia vs India. International Women's Day. The MCG sold out. Over 86,000 fans came. The world stopped and stared.
2023
É Premier League (WPL) launches in India
Five franchise teams. A total value of over $570 million. India's biggest cricket market was now fully invested in women's cricket. The money had arrived.
The night everything changed
March 8, 2020 — a date cricket will never forget
Picture this. It is International Women's Day. The Melbourne Cricket Ground one of the biggest stadiums on earth. Australia vs India, Women's T20 World Cup Final. The gates open at noon.
By evening, 86,174 fans have walked in.
People who said women's cricket had no audience were silent that night. There were no empty seats. There were no half-filled stands. There was a full stadium, a roaring crowd, and two teams playing cricket of the highest quality under the brightest lights.
People who said women's cricket had no audience were silent that night. There were no empty seats. There were no half-filled stands. There was a full stadium, a roaring crowd, and two teams playing cricket of the highest quality under the brightest lights.
86,174
That is the number of people who attended the 2020 Women's T20 World Cup Final at the MCG. It broke the world record for attendance at a women's cricket match — by more than 60,000 people. It remains one of the most attended women's sporting events in history.
Australia won by 85 runs. But that night, winning and losing felt secondary. The real victory belonged to every woman who had ever picked up a bat and been told the world did not care.
"I looked up at the stands and I could not see a single empty seat. In that moment I thought this is what we always knew was possible."
— Alyssa Healy, Australia wicket-keeperThe stars
Meet the women who made history
Every revolution needs its heroes. These are the players who carried women's cricket on their shoulders and delivered it to the world.
ML
Meg Lanning — Australia
Batter and captain · The greatest of her generation
Simple truth: Meg Lanning is the best women's batter most people have never heard of. She led Australia to six ICC trophies as captain. Her batting average is over 58 in ODIs a number most male batters would be proud of. Calm, powerful, and almost impossible to get out when she is in form.
6 ICC Trophies as captain ODI avg 58+SM
Smriti Mandhana — India
Batter · India's biggest women's cricket star
If you watch one women's cricketer and want to fall in love with the game, watch Smriti Mandhana bat. Her cover drive is as beautiful as any shot in cricket men's or women's. She has won the ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year award multiple times and is the reason millions of Indian girls now dream of playing cricket.
ICC Cricketer of the Year WPL superstarEP
Ellyse Perry — Australia
Batter and bowler · The complete cricketer
Ellyse Perry does it all. She bats brilliantly. She bowls fast. And she once represented Australia in both cricket AND football at international level at the same time. She is quite simply one of the most gifted all-round athletes in any sport, anywhere in the world. Simple as that.
Dual international athlete 500+ international wicketsMR
Mithali Raj — India
Batter · India's all-time greatest
Before Smriti Mandhana, before the WPL, before the big crowds there was Mithali Raj. For over 23 years she represented India, scored more than 10,000 international runs, and did it all at a time when nobody was watching and nobody was paying. She is the reason Indian women's cricket exists the way it does today.
10,000+ international runs 23-year careerFS
Fatima Sana — Pakistan
Fast bowler · Pakistan's rising star
From Karachi to the world Fatima Sana is the most exciting young fast bowler in women's cricket right now. She bowls with real pace, real aggression, and zero fear. Every time she runs in to bowl, a whole nation in Pakistan watches. She is not just a cricketer she is a symbol of what the next generation of South Asian women's cricket can be.
Pakistan's No.1 bowler Top ranked fast bowlerThe money arrived
From unpaid players to million-dollar contracts
Not long ago, most women cricketers had day jobs. They trained after work, took unpaid leave for international tours, and bought their own cricket gear. Playing for your country did not pay the bills.
That has changed completely. Here is what the business of women's cricket looks like today:
That has changed completely. Here is what the business of women's cricket looks like today:
India — WPL 2023
$570M+ in franchise sales
Five teams bought by the biggest companies in India
Australia
Equal pay — first in cricket
Women and men on the same contract values
England — The Hundred
Men and women play together
Same tournament, same venues, same broadcast deal
Global TV
100+ countries broadcasting
Women's cricket now reaches every cricket-playing nation
Did you know?
In 2017, the top-earning women's cricketer in England earned less than a part-time gym instructor. By 2024, England's top women's players earn six-figure salaries. That change happened in just seven years.
Why this matters to you
This is not just a women's story — it is a cricket story
Some people still think of women's cricket as a separate, smaller version of the real game. That thinking is simply wrong and outdated.When Smriti Mandhana hits a cover drive, it is the same cover drive. When Fatima Sana bowls a yorker, it is the same yorker.
When 86,000 people roar at the MCG, it is the same roar. The game is the same. The passion is the same. The only thing that was ever different was the audience and the audience has now arrived in its millions.
Every girl in Pakistan, India, Australia, England, or anywhere else who picks up a bat today does so in a world that looks different from the world of ten years ago. They have role models. They have professional leagues. They have a path that leads somewhere real.
Every girl in Pakistan, India, Australia, England, or anywhere else who picks up a bat today does so in a world that looks different from the world of ten years ago. They have role models. They have professional leagues. They have a path that leads somewhere real.
When I started playing, I never dreamed I could be a professional cricketer. Now little girls grow up knowing they can. That is the biggest change of all.
— Mithali Raj, on her legacyThe revolution in women's cricket is not finished. But it is unstoppable. And the best part? You are watching it happen in real time.
The bottom line
Women's cricket went from empty grounds in the 1980s to 86,000-fan stadiums in 2020. From unpaid players to $570 million leagues. From ignored to unmissable. It did not need anyone's permission. It just needed time — and women who refused to stop playing while they waited for the world to catch up.
They didn't just play the game. They saved it by showing the world there was a whole half of humanity that cricket had been ignoring.
— Women's Cricket · The verdict of history
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