Women’s ICC tournaments set to have sponsors different from men as conscious efforts are made to invest in Women’s game.
Women’s ICC tournaments from 2025 to have separate sponsors from men’s events.
The 2025 ICC women’s events will have independent sponsors, a move that is anticipated to increase the profile of the women’s tournaments and set them apart from the men’s. Beginning with the 2025 ODI World Cup, this should extend to the 2026 T20 World Cup and the 2027 Champions Trophy, for which the ICC has collaborated with Unilever in anticipation of future growth.
“It is the first time we’ve offered commercial opportunities specifically for our women’s cricket events and we see this partnership as a significant marker of confidence in the standalone value of women’s cricket,” Anurag Dahiya, the ICC’s chief commercial officer, told . “The decoupling signals that women’s cricket is no longer an add-on or a freebie that’s attached to men’s games, but a distinct high-potential commercial product.
“It’s a shift from advertisers saying we are subsidising women’s cricket to saying we are genuinely investing in it, and that’s because we believe that it can drive revenue, audiences, and relevance.”
Dahiya pointed to the increased interest in the women’s game over the last few years as a key driver for the decision. “We see an acceleration of growth across metrics, whether it’s in stadia or on broadcast and digital platforms. We’ve broken audience records steadily over the last few years.”
Last year’s T20 World Cup saw a record 15,935 spectators for a women’s pool match when India and Pakistan played in the group stage, while the final between South Africa and New Zealand was sold out. Following Newlands in 2023 and the MCG in 2020, which broke the record for the greatest in-stadia audience at a women’s cricket game with 86,174, that was the third consecutive time a women’s T20 final had been fully attended.
There will be a women’s ICC event every year thanks to the advent of a T20 Champions Trophy in 2027, and 12 nations will compete in the T20 World Cup starting in 2026, up from 10 since 2016.
“The expansion of events has also been giving us a lot of momentum,” Dahiya said. “Our calendar has introduced new events such as the Under-19 women’s T20 World Cup, the women’s Champions Trophy, and upcoming editions of the existing events, which will see more participating teams as well. There are more opportunities for players and more opportunities for our fans to enjoy the content from these apex events.”