The big success of the Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia this year has forced the ICC to explore the option of inviting separate bidders for women’s cricket for the 2023-31 cycle.
With a total of 1.1 billion video views, this edition was the most-watched ICC Women’s event ever, and the second successful after the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup that was held in 2019.
A senior ICC board member is confident that the staggering numbers could force the global body to invite bidders for the women’s game separately.
“It’s being explored although no decisions have been taken. But there’s potentially an opportunity there. The big numbers we saw for audiences for women’s T20 means we must explore it. It has value,” he added.
The ICC released the viewership data for the event, which showed that the World Cup was viewed for a staggering 5.4 billion minutes in India. The fans from India watched 1.78 billion minutes of live action on TV alone as the Women in Blue faced Australia in the summit clash at the MCG on March 8. The figure is 59 times more than the final of the previous edition in 2018. In India, 3.1 million tuned in to watch the game on Hotstar alone, the highest ever for a women’s game.
In Australia, the average viewing minutes for the final was 1.2 million, which made it the most watched women’s cricket match and the sixth-most watched cricket game ever in Australia.