The promise, impact and potential of WPL

Michael Klinger, the head coach of Gujarat Giants, has endured a tough time in his maiden job with a women's team, witnessing his side remain at the bottom of the table more often than not in the ongoing and previous edition of the Women's Premier League. On the flip side though, he has also had the opportunity to work with more Indian domestic cricketers who are tasked with important responsibilities in the multi-starrer tournament than coaches of most other sides. Last season itself, as many as three uncapped domestic cricketers who featured for the franchise went on to make their India debuts - Tanuja Kanwar, Sayali Satghare, and Priya Mishra.

These are still early days for Klinger on the job, just as it is for the tournament itself, which forms the platform to bridge the gap in quality between India's domestic structure and the international level. In the 13 games that he has coached the team, GG have faced several struggles - from fielding lapses, inability to come to terms with the conditions, batting explosions and more. These have not been the drawbacks of merely his team, but also that of most teams on multiple occasions.

While there have been some close finishes and extraordinary team and individual displays, the quality of cricket in the tournament is far from reaching optimal levels, according to him. Unlike Australia, where the Women's Big Bash League started in 2015 and in England where the Super League kickstarted in 2016, WPL has a bit of catch-up to do in terms of reaching the standards where it can dictate tactics and gameplay as global leaders of women's cricket.

Klinger has coached a team which has relied heavily on Indian domestic bowlers, who had never played international cricket. To put that into perspective, in the first two seasons of the tournament, the domestic Indian bowlers of Gujarat Giants had delivered 481 balls, which is more than the next two teams - RCB (345) and UPW (144) - combined.

Similarly, UP Warriorz have relied extensively on the domestic Indian batters, who have faced 314 deliveries, which is twice more than the next best - RCB (152). Similar dependence continues in the third season as well for the two teams. For the first half of the third season, UP Warriorz in fact had an unusual all-Indian top-three in their batting line-up. They were also the only team to open with a non-international cricketer this season.

Jon Lewis, the head coach UP Warriorz as well as the England women's team, has been a part of the system for a slightly longer time than Klinger. On the success front, he has had it marginally more than Klinger in the WPL, and much like him, he has had to work extensively with domestic players and throw them in the deep end of the high-profile tournament. With the experience that he has had, his assessment as the coach is that the depth of local talent is still missing in Indian cricket.

"WPL is really strong in comparison to The Hundred or the WBBL, probably the two bigger women's tournaments at the moment," Lewis feels. "The tournament in terms of quality is strong, but there is also potentially not quite the depth of local players yet. What this tournament will do is give young girls and young women the ambition to play in the tournament and an understanding of the level that's required to compete with the best players in the world, that we have here at the moment. The knock-on effect of just having them in the country is that the players who are around them understand the level that they need to attain to compete.

"But it's moving forward pretty quickly because of the time spent on task here in this country, probably in comparison to anywhere else in the world. The players are definitely not work-shy. Everyone in India works incredibly hard here. And that's just part of the culture of the country. You would expect over time, with money spent, resource spent, plus the work ethic, it will definitely improve the standard of women's cricket here."

One of the reasons that Klinger states for the gulf in quality of the domestic cricketers in India as compared to those in England and Australia is the lack of game-time in quality playing surfaces. "When I look at it, it's (WPL) probably an easier competition compared to Australia," Klinger tells Cricbuzz. "There are seven domestic teams in Australia, so the talent's very concentrated. There's obviously a lot here, thirty-something (37) teams. But there's a bigger population in India. So, in some ways, it evens itself out.

"But at the same time, it's hard to upkeep 30-40-plus facilities and grounds and keep them in pristine condition. It's seven grounds in Australia. So the women are going to be playing on high-quality grounds, high-quality pitches, high-quality outfields in Australia. And that lends to improving their skills probably a little bit quicker as well.

"Now, women's cricket in Australia and the UK, is starting to become almost full-time professional. That's probably the difference. The resources are probably a bit more in Australia than they are here, and it's easier because there are fewer people. But the facilities we've seen here at some of the academies have been excellent. If that keeps increasing here in India, I think there's no reason why the domestic level and the domestic players here can't keep improving in WPL going forward."

Klinger, however, is of the view that even beyond the commercial aspect of the tournament - which is the richest women's cricket league in the world and is the best-paying by a significant margin - WPL remains as relevant as any of the big leagues in the world. The primary reason for that, according to him, is the pressure that players get used to by playing in front of massive crowds, which they are unlikely to find anywhere else. At the three venues that his team has played at since the start of last season - Bengaluru, Delhi and Vadodara - the crowd turnout for the games have been anywhere in the range of 12,000 to 30,000.

He has witnessed the extremes of home support in Vadodara to a near 30,000 audience going against his side at the M Chinnaswamy in games against RCB. This experience, which is rare to find in women's leagues anywhere else in the world, prepares the domestic Indian players to take on the pressures of international cricket better, and suggested that going forward the ICC should create windows for the three premier women's leagues around the world - WPL, WBBL and The Hundred.

"I think it's (WPL) as relevant as any of the other big competitions in women's cricket. The level's good in all three - WBBL, The Hundred and WPL. If anything, the WPL, because of the atmosphere the girls play in front of, with the loud crowds and loud cheering and big support for the home team, almost gets you a little bit more ready for the highest level because it adds a bit of pressure. You get better crowds here than you do in international cricket. So it just adds that little bit of pressure to the players, which I think then holds them in better stead when they go back and hopefully play international cricket for their countries."

"I just sort of sit back and look at it. I've been involved in women's cricket for a couple of years now. And you sort of look and you think, this is unreal. Just to see how much support it's getting, for me, that's been great. The ICC, I think, going forward now, should just make windows for all three, so that international players can play in all three if they choose to, which is great for them in terms of playing at the highest level, making a good salary. WPL is up there as much as any other."

However, he believes that for the Indian talent to develop and be able to reach the kind of standards that their counterparts are currently able to showcase, they need to find ways to bridge the gap further between the domestic level and the WPL, with more competitive contests, so that the Indian domestic players can come better equipped to take on the big, international players.

"The individual players will improve and get better by playing more high-intensity matches," he suggested. "It's very hard to replicate a T20 match at training and hitting the nets and even fielding. For India, if they want to keep improving their local and domestic T20, for the best players, I love the concept of the Challenger Trophy, of getting the best of the best playing against each other.

"I know it happens during the year, but I think if it can happen more and more, two, three, four times a year, and ideally if there's a gap when the Indian players, the senior women players can play, that'll lift the standard really highly. So I think the more times you can get that representative style mini-tournament happening with the Indian players as well, that'll definitely lift it.

"There might even be opportunities. It sounds a bit crazy, but just to get a couple of overseas players in each of those teams, even if it is not your top level, but maybe the ones who just missed out on WPL, just to have someone who can bring some different ideas. I'm not talking so much about the playing side of it.

"Some of the girls playing domestic cricket probably don't get the exposure to the game sense required at the top level and they're learning it now at this level. It'd be great if they could learn that and sort of be all over that at the level just below, so that when they get to WPL, they understand what's needed when you're under pressure, what's needed in certain situations. There's just not that exposure to that intensity that there is in WPL."

Lewis, who has been a part of the tournament since its inaugural edition, is also of a similar view. But he believes the Indian cricket board has done well to tap in on the knowledge capital from other countries where women's cricket had taken an early lead in development.

"If you look at all the head coaches, they're all from overseas, which is a similar pattern to what happened at the start of the IPL, and then over time, that's changed. You've seen a more balanced approach to Indian coaches and overseas coaches, depending on what each franchise wants to do.

"I think it's really smart from the board here in India to try and bring in as many people from overseas to try and help grow the women's game here and to cherry-pick ideas alongside having their own ideas at the same time as how to do it. This is a similar pattern to what happened at the start of the IPL, and then over time, that's changed."