ICC WWC 2017 Final becomes most watched women's sporting event in India

Women’s cricket has seen a sudden meteoric rise in India. After a very successful outing for India Women in the recently concluded ICC Women’s World Cup 2017, the good wishes for the team has continuously been flowing in. Now, another good news comes in for the women in blue. As per the reports in livemint.com, the final match of the tournament – played between the hosts England Women and India Women – garnered a record viewership in India.

Interestingly, the match became the most watched sports event in the history of women’s sporting event in the nation. The data shared by the TV ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) was calculated across seven television channels. The match, that was played on July 23 at the Lord’s, managed to have 19.53 million impressions on television. Last year, the badminton final in the Rio Olympics between India’s PV Sindhu and Spain’s Carolina Marin had garnered 17.3 million impressions.

Impressions refer to the number of people who tuned into the game for a specific average period during the proceedings. Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag believes that this is a landmark event in Indian women’s cricket. He was very pleased with the way the women in blue played. The Indian team was unfortunate to have lost the finals by just 9 runs.

“Its a good sign. It’s the public’s responsibility to back the Indian team when they’re playing so well. Today, with social media being very powerful, everyone is far more aware and people are watching on their mobile phones as well,” quoted Virender Sehwag.

Women’s cricket is there to grow

Indranil Das Blah, founding partner at Kwan Entertainment and Marketing Solutions, a sports marketing agency, also spoke on the same lines and rightly remarked that women’s cricket is there to grow. “I think there is enough appetite for content beyond men’s cricket. The audience watching today is a combination of cricket fans and a brand new curious fan who wants to know what all the fuss is about,” Blah quoted.