In a historic event, the sporting in India will get a new platform for women’s cricket through Women’s Premier League (WPL). Cricket, a bat-and-ball game is the national sport of England which is played between two teams (eleven players per team) on a 22-yard pitch. There couldn’t have been a much better timing to launch the WPL as International women’s day is just around the corner and definitely its a giant step for women empowerment and promoting cricket as a sport amongst women in India which has always been a men’s arena for many years in India with two international world cup trophies in the bag. With its first match (Adani Sportsline-owned Gujarat Giants Vs Reliance-owned Mumbai Indians) at DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai today evening, BCCI will launch its first season of the (WPL) after 15 successful years of men’s Indian Premiere League which is often known as as the cash-rich league. Harmanpreet Kaur, who is the captain of the India Women’s National Cricket Team in all formats will be handling the captaincy of Mumbai Indians in the WPL. The other Indian player who is heading RCB is Smriti Mandhana while the other captains from other countries are Meg Lanning for Delhi Capitals, Alyssa Healy for UP Warriorz, and Beth Mooney for Gujrat Giants.
The other three teams participating this year are the Diageo-owned Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB), the JSW and GMR- owned Delhi Capitals, and the Capri Global-owned UP Warriorz, and the first edition of the WPL season will conclude on March 26 (The final at the Brabourne Stadium) with Mumbai and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra being the hosts for all the matches. The league will boost the talent of young girls from various parts of the country and will give them a platform where they will get exposure and earn a lot of experience in the T20 format. The viewers can watch these matches on the Sports 18 network ( television) and the Jio cinema app (mobile). The twenty-two clashes (round-robin) between the five teams will be held either at 3:30 pm or 7:30 pm in Indian Standard Time (IST) and hence each team will have eight matches (20 matches total) and the other two matches will be the eliminator and the final one. Indian population who has been addicted to watching men’s cricket will now watch these women cricketers closely over their big screens and the players will garner motivation from people’s appreciation of their footwork over the field in form of wickets, catches, fours and sixes as now the corners of the most Indian newspapers will now be filled with their work in the DY Patil Stadium and the Brabourne Stadium.
The WPL will give a platform to the players from different states and Union Territories of India to showcase their talent and also to come into the limelight so that they can later be chosen by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to play for the country. Playing for the nation definitely brings a sense of pride amongst the players and also develops and boosts their confidence. The league will also help players gain more experience in the crunch situations in the game and how to deal with the spur-of-the-moment situations, which they are lacking currently. Also, it will help them learn tactics of the game by playing with and against international players and even be able to learn to cope with the pressure and expectations at such a giant level as they will be playing tough cricket regularly through this league.
Research studies have shown that physical activities like walking, playing, etc help the body to release stress-relieving chemicals like endorphins and serotonin. Norepinephrine(which balances out the stress hormone cortisol ), is the reason for your happiness and also gets simulated while playing. Through sports, many players have had better mental health as they have a strict regime to follow and a diet which makes them sleep on time and keeps them fit also their sleep cycle is organized because of this. The timetable which they have to follow requires extreme levels of concentration and focus and they also acquire immense resilience and high energy levels as they keep themselves motivated through the drills. Since the players join a particular sport at a very young age, they have better mental growth and they learn teamwork at a very grassroots level.
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