India’s Women’s Cricket World Cup win sets the stage for growth in South Asian diaspora

The GIST: On Sunday, India won the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup for the first time ever, doing it on their home turf in front of more than 40K fans. It’s a transformative moment for women’s cricket in the country, which, despite its storied legacy on the men’s side, is just building up its women’s fandom thanks to recent domestic investment and increased exposure.

• By disrupting the dominance of England and Australia in global women’s cricket, India’s win has implications in South Asia and abroad, building hype for women’s cricket domestically and throughout an active, engaged South Asian diaspora. Paisa vasool.

The American diaspora: About 13% of Americans consider themselves cricket fans, notably fueled by the country’s surging South Asian population, over 75% of which were born outside the U.S. In 2022, the Collage Group found only 5% of Americans followed or played cricket — but 79% of foreign-born Indian-Americans did, as well as 47% of U.S. born Indian-Americans.

• This fervent fandom is bringing global cricket here: Last year, a men’s India–Pakistan match in NYC drew 34K fans and 400M viewers worldwide, a promising sign as the U.S. prepares to host Olympic T20 cricket for the first time at LA28 (although the American teams might not even qualify).

The Canadian diaspora: Up north, South Asians represent 33% of cricket fans yet comprise only 11% of the general population. Similar to the U.S., those born outside Canada bring their fandom with them: Engagement among foreign-born Canadians is 29% compared to 16% for those born in Canada.

• Canada’s South Asian fandom has been credited for driving engagement and partnerships for Cricket Canada, and the high engagement benefits the women’s national team as well, which attracts 59% of Canada’s cricket audience.

Zooming out: Though cricket has historically been associated with Commonwealth countries, the sport is spreading beyond these borders due to worldwide immigration patterns amid the sport’s global growth. This matters as the U.S. and Canada become more invested in cricket: In fact, high-profile Indian businessmen have helped fund Major League Cricket in the U.S.

• Growing women’s cricket in India is important too as it inspires a following among South Asian fans in North America — and sponsors should be paying attention. According to Nielsen, 37% of AANHPI sports viewers want more culturally relevant advertising during games, so appealing to South Asian cricket fans is a clever approach.