The WPL 2025 Editorial Guide
What our unique "match analysis" coverage of the WPL needs.
What is Best of Cricket, and why are we covering the 2025 WPL?
Best of Cricket is a daily newsletter that aggregates the most important news, the best stories, and the most insightful audio-visual content on cricket every day.
One of the benefits of running the newsletter is that we have a unique insight into how most online media outlets cover the Women’s game.
There are four main points to consider;
Only three countries cover the Women’s game regularly – England, Australia & India.
The Women’s games mostly get coverage when the three countries’ national teams are playing “big” games – i.e. games against each other, Tests, or World Cups.
The outlets do not cover news from other countries. So, the English don’t write about Australia or India, the Indians don’t write about England or Australia, & the Aussies don’t write about England or India.
Most coverage is driven by individual reporters rather than teams. There are good writers that have cultivated sources and can occasionally write big stories, but there are not entire editorial teams dedicated to covering the Women’s game on a day-to-day basis, 365-days a year.
The one exception is the Women’s Premier League. Three outlets – ESPNcricinfo, Cricbuzz, & Cricket.com – ran dedicated coverage of the tournament in 2024. It was the only Women’s tournament in the calendar year that saw multiple stories a day, with all teams covered equally.
However, these outlets treat the WPL as a chance to introduce new fans to the Women’s game, rather than analyse the matches for hardcore WPL fans.
As Somesh Agarwal, the Cricket.com editor, told me last year, WPL coverage focusses on “player-centric pieces to shed light on up-and-coming players who are yet to become household names.”
Comparatively, IPL coverage is far broader; “It involves covering different aspects of every game: live blogs, analysis articles, stats pieces, match stories, watch-alongs and social media posts.”
The WPL may be the less popular cousin of the IPL, but it is not a small tournament. It is valued at around $160 million, averages live attendances of over 10,000 fans, & drew a cumulative audience of over 250 million viewers across TV and digital streaming in 2024.
That means there are tens of thousands (or maybe even hundreds of thousands!) of hardcore WPL fans who watch every match that are being ignored.
I think we can write analyses for them.
What kind of reporting are we looking for?
We want to change match reports. Currently, match reports are written for people who didn’t watch the match. They tell you who won, who the top scorers were, who the top bowlers were, and recount any memorable moments.
However, there is limited analysis of the game. We want to introduce short, insightful coverage of important moments, events and trends.
The analysis could be about a stat from the match ("Mandhana tends to score at a higher strike rate when opening next to Wyatt-Hodge"), it could be about a innings-changing event ("Why Kapp's 3-over spell caused a late-innings batting collapse even though she didn’t take any wickets"), it could be about a trend you think is worth watching ("When Kaur comes in after the 6th over, MI tend to score more than 180"), or anything else that you think stood out in the match.
Essentially - the analyses need to help readers understand something new about the game.
Can I see an example of this type of analysis?
Sure! This analysis comes from an article I wrote for Jarrod Kimber’s Good Areas outlet after last year’s WPL eliminator between RCB and MI;
“RCB’s middle order bails out the openers…again.
Despite Smriti Mandhana’s brilliance in the first half of the tournament, RCB’s openers have struggled to make an impact on the game. This problem has only become worse in the last 4 matches, as the openers have averaged only 26.50 runs at a combined strike rate of 103.92.
The openers have been putting RCB in trouble during the powerplays due to their slow run rates and cheap wicket losses. Luckily for the team, batters 3 through 7 – anchored by new orange cap holder Ellyse Perry – have been averaging 113.75 runs at a strike rate of 134.22 during the same 4-game period.
This played out again during the eliminator, as Perry’s 66-run innings saved the openers’ blushes after both Mandhana & Sophie Devine were back in the pavilion at 20-2 with just 2.2 overs gone. Changing the batting order has not worked either, as Mandhana has opened the innings with three different partners in the last four matches to no avail.
Perry, Richa Ghosh & the pinch-hitting Georgia Wareham (who has the third highest strike rate in the tournament at 163.23) are propping up the batting, but RCB’s openers need to find a way to contribute at the top of the order.”
What do we need from our writers?
We want writers who can submit a 250-500 word analysis per innings for every WPL game (i.e. two analyses per match) - and within 20 minutes of the innings ending.
This requires (a) a basic understanding of the WPL, (b) a familiarity with the players and teams, (c) an understanding of statistics, (d) the time to watch every WPL match, and (e) an ability to write quickly.
Consistency is very important for us. Writers that submit at least one analysis for every game will be favoured for publication.
Punctuality is also very important. We want to publish these pieces 45-60 minutes after the games end. Therefore, we need the stories to come in as soon as possible after the innings are over.
Finally, because the deadlines are so tight, all submissions will need to be final drafts. There will not be time to edit these analyses before publication. Small grammatical mistakes are okay (we can fix that on our end), but statistical errors and unclear writing will not be accepted.
Essentially – we want short, insightful analyses submitted within 20 minutes of the end of an innings, and preferably on a regular schedule throughout the tournament.
Do you want to contribute to this project? It’s as easy as messaging me and showing your interest!