England’s ‘The Hundred’ and South Africa’s ‘SA20’ were ranked first and second, respectively, by WCA.© BCCI
The Indian Premier League (IPL), the richest cricketing spectacle on the globe, has been placed third among 10 franchise leagues in the World Cricketers’ Association (WCA) rankings released on Thursday. England’s ‘The Hundred’ and South Africa’s ‘SA20’ were ranked first and second, respectively. According to the WCA, the IPL received maximum points for average payment and payment reliability, but fell short of the top spot due to lagging in areas such as the “right to organize” and “dispute resolution.”
Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) and the Pakistan Super League (PSL) rounded out the top five.
Here are the ratings of the top 10 leagues:
The Hundred – 75.2
SA20 – 68
IPL – 62.6
BBL – 62.5
PSL – 48
MLC – 43
ILT20 – 39.1
CPL – 38.9
Abu Dhabi T10 – 30.1
BPL – 22.6
WCA CEO Tom Moffat noted that while the sport has benefited from the global growth of domestic leagues, it remains crucial to ensure that players’ interests and welfare are protected.
“WCA is fortunate to have a birds eye view of the global game, and daily engagements with players competing in leagues around the world. The growth of the domestic leagues landscape has been overwhelmingly positive for our sport, but it has the potential to be even better. We want all sanctioned leagues to be successful, and to provide fair protections and standards for people within them,” said Moffat.
“In the absence of enforceable regulated global standards in a number of important areas identified by the players and their representatives, the updated Leagues Hub provides evolved, consolidated benchmarking on current practice. We have reached out to each league inviting them to work with us to meet best practice benchmarks, and to continue to advance the professionalisation and growth of our sport. We intend to provide consistent updates, including on both good practice, and on issues, as they arise during the year.”