Image Credit- BCCI
The batter for the UP Warriorz and Australia, Grace
Harris, is visiting India for the fourth time. She had hardly seen anything but
the drive to the DY Patil Stadium via the motorway and Marine Drive in Mumbai.
The second WPL event will being held in Bengaluru, which is a pleasant change.
Harris is hardly the lone example. Meg Lanning, the captain of the Delhi
Capitals and a global sensation who dominated the cricket scene for 13 years,
has never played cricket in Bengaluru. The former captain of Australia made his
debut at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.
Prior to today, Mumbai has been the preferred location
for women’s cricket matches due to scheduling conflicts, logistical challenges,
and the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the BCCI has finally expanded the scope
with this year’s WPL, which is evenly divided between Bengaluru and New Delhi
with 11 games apiece.
More than 10 days have passed since four of the five
teams arrived in the city, setting up camp at various hotels and training
facilities spread out over the area. Even the alleged hosts, Royal Challengers
Bangalore, who occasionally had to drive an hour to the periphery to train at
Just Cricket Academy close to the international airport, received no benefits.
This is a result of the teams receiving equal training session allocations at M
Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Even if it’s nothing like what you get in Bengaluru,
the atmosphere is starting to heat up, and once the competition starts, you can
expect excitement and curiosity to grow. This year, the whole competition will
be ticketed, in contrast to the previous year when women were admitted free of
charge. The BCCI has made sure that their prices are reasonable in order to
attract more customers.
The pricing of tickets for WPL games range from INR 100 to 499, whilst those
for the Indian Premier League start at INR 500 to 1000 and go up to INR 50,000.
For the first game, the BCCI had only initially opened two stands at the
Chinnaswamy, and although those stands swiftly filled up, they decided to open
a few more later on.
Maybe on Saturday, when RCB kicks off their campaign
versus UP Warriorz, the real excitement will be felt. Bengaluru is a city that
has always been passionate about cricket, and their support for the RCB in the
IPL is unmatched. Women’s cricket is the one thing that has been absent,
though. Now that has changed, Bengaluru is prepared as usual.