So far, the women’s franchise boom is only making the rich richer

Nat Sciver-Brunt was by far the tournament’s leading run-scorer. Having traded places with Ellyse Perry for the Orange Cap for most of the group stage, she broke free out front with a match-winning 69 off 35 balls against RCB, and 77 in a 133-run partnership with Hayley Matthews in the semi-final. Matthews herself was both the competition’s joint-leading wicket-taker, along with teammate Amelia Kerr, and was only behind Perry and Sciver-Brunt for runs scored.

Star-studded lineups of overseas players litter the WPL. Mumbai’s opponents in the final were captained by Meg Lanning, the leader of three Australia players in the side as well as Marizanne Kapp. These talismanic names flashed across big screens and marketing campaigns have played a huge part in drawing crowds to the competition, and making the cricket on the field compellingly watchable. But, beneath that shiny veneer, they’re deepening a divide the proliferation of franchise leagues was billed to fix.

Leading run-scorers and wicket-takers in the 2025 WPL

By and large, overseas players are a point of difference in a franchise team, paid the most money and with the most pressure on them to single-handedly win matches. Teams want the best of the best and pay huge sums of money in auctions to attract them. In women’s cricket, these salaries are often higher than the figure paid to them by their national boards. Sciver-Brunt was paid around $400,000 for this year’s WPL - that chunk alone makes her one of the UK’s highest paid female athletes.

Spending that kind of money on a player must have some guarantee of performance. That guarantee has been built up by Sciver-Brunt by being consistently one of the best all-rounders in the world over the last five years. It’s inescapable, however, that Sciver-Brunt holds a privileged position of having access to accumulating that bulk of credit that players from other countries simply do not. England play far more cricket than most other teams, and play far more against the best sides in the world.

In the last 12 months alone, no other side has played more T20Is than England have (25), nor has any side played more ODIs than them (18). Only Australia have played more T20Is against India than England have over the last five years, while Malaysia have played the same amount of matches against India that New Zealand have in that time. The bubble of the top tier women’s sides creates players who are far more likely to be the types of overseas players snapped up by franchise leagues for huge sums of money.

There’s nothing wrong with money-making and performance driven franchises wanting the best overseas players for their side. But, the women’s franchise boom was supposed to level the playing field by exposing local players to the elite, not heighten the worth of a small group of players. Even by exposing local players to the best in the world, with the only leagues currently drawing most of those players in Australia, England and India, it’s hardly serving to close the exposure gap between the local talent in different domestic set-ups, as was pointed out in a Cricbuzz article last week.

While there have been statements of intent from other boards like the PCB and the BCB, only CWI have so far implemented a global T20 league, with three teams participating in 2024 across only seven matches. No Pakistan player has featured in a franchise league over the last three years, nor have players from Bangladesh. Associate nations like Scotland have benefitted from the WPL extra overseas player rule, which allows a side to field five overseas players in an XI if one of them is from a non-full member nation. The Bryce sisters have both featured in different editions of the WPL, as has USA’s Tara Norris.

Equally, while players from teams like New Zealand, South Africa and West Indies have so far demanded places as overseas players, the exclusivity of that group of players and the lack of those coming through behind them makes the sustainability of this doubtful. While English players like Linsey Smith and Georgia Adams played in the WBBL this year, no players outside of the regular South Africa names like Laura Wovlaardt, Kapp, and Chloe Tryon found teams. That’s the same for the West Indies, who were represented by Matthews and Deandra Dottin.

There’s also an ‘Australian premium’ in franchise overseas picks. As the best side in the world with the most advanced domestic set-up, players without the same bank of performance as other big-name overseas players have tended to also be valued highly. Almost half the overseas players picked in the WPL this year were Australian, while over 60 percent of 2025 Hundred overseas signings are Australian. With matches against Australia billed as the toughest test for any side, the eyes on Australia players in those games make them more likely to be picked up in both the two leading non-Australian franchise tournaments.

It’s worth stating that franchise player salaries are going up across the board, not just for overseas players. Uncapped Simran Shaikh was the most expensive player bought at the last WPL auction, sold for 1.9 crore, while U19 India star Gunalan Kamalini went for 1.6 crore. Hundred salaries are also increasing year-on-year, and the WBBL salary cap was effectively doubled in 2023. But, for the best of the best, that growth is happening far more rapidly. The top salary bracket of the women’s Hundred in 2025 has risen by £15,000 compared to 2024, while the lowest paid player salary bracket rose by £2,000. More than half of the players in the top salary bracket are overseas players.

The exclusivity of that bubble of top paid overseas players feels almost impossible for players outside of the top playing nations to break into. Chamari Athapaththu, who is consistently ranked by the ICC as one of the top 10 T20I all-rounders in the world was overlooked in this year’s Hundred auction, and left the WPL early to play for Sri Lanka after spending time warming the bench for UP Warriorz. Chinelle Henry, who was picked up in the WPL as an injury replacement after a well-timed breakout innings against India, was passed over in The Hundred auction, despite being one of the players of the tournament in India.

The reality of franchise leagues currently is that, while they are driving performances in the women’s game, it’s only benefiting the elite nations. Limited overseas places in sides mean only the few benefit from the biggest and fastest-growing salaries, while the international calendar and hierarchy limit the opportunities for players to break into that group. The investment gap between different boards means exposure is cut off for most countries, widening the performance gap at international level. Everywhere you look, leagues are breeding inequality with no easy fix, and against the impact they were supposed to bring.

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