Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley thrilled to see so many Australians in Women's T20 League

Nick Hockley (source: Twitter)

The inaugural edition of the Women's T20 League is just around the corner. With the five teams all set to take on the challenge, the tournament will begin on the 4th of March, with the Gujarat team taking on the Mumbai team. The final of the tournament will be played on the 26th of March.

Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley is overjoyed that as many as 14 Australians will compete in the inaugural Women's T20 League, which will be held in Mumbai next month. The first edition of the tournament, with a team valuation of more than Rs 4600 crore and a broadcast deal worth more than Rs 950 crore, has already begun to attract attention.

"We are so excited to see rapid growth of women's cricket in India and to see full stadium in our last series here is absolutely fantastic and something we had been advocating in Australian cricket," Hockley, who was present at the Ferozshah Kotla during the second India vs Australia Test, told PTI during an interaction.

Ashleigh Gardner, with a Rs 3.20 crore (USD 558,000) deal with Gujarat Giants, is the highest-paid Australian star in WPL. "We are absolutely delighted to see WPL starting. It's a great parameter to see how many Australian players are playing in WPL and to have 40 per cent of the Aussie represent the overseas players in WPL, which is a great result," he said.

"And equally in terms of T20 cricket, good number of Aussies are playing in IPL, it is great to see how we are going globally," Hockley stated during the conversation on the opening day of the second Test."

We would like to see as many Indian players playing in WBBL in foreseeable future: Nick Hockley

While Indian men are not permitted to participate in franchise-based T20 leagues around the world, top female cricketers such as Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, and Richa Ghosh have all played in the WBBL.

"More opportunity that we have for our female players is just absolutely brilliant. There is now an established pathway to play professional cricket for female cricketers which is so exciting," he said.

"We are proud that WBBL has been a leader and standard of cricket has been exceptionally high. So we would like to see as many Indian players playing in WBBL in foreseeable future."