The WPL 2024 opening ceremony was an extremely star-studded affair with major Bollywood actors including Shah Rukh Khan performing in Bengaluru on Friday. Five major Bollywood superstars represented the five competing franchises and their dance performances kept the crowd on their feet and some of them could not help but groove with their favourite actors. Karthik Aryan represented Gujarat Giants, Siddharth Malhotra showed his support for Delhi Capitals, Tiger Shroff supported Royal Challengers Bangalore, Varun Dhawan picked UP Warriorz and Shahid Kapoor was the final one who was the representative for Mumbai Indians. All of them performed on their superhit songs.
The second edition of the Women's Premier League, beginning with a high-profile match between defending champions Mumbai Indians and runners-up Delhi Capitals, will be optimistic about meeting its existential purpose of giving a wider platform to promising home-grown talents.
The foreign stars glittered brightly in the inaugural edition held in Mumbai, and the Indians will be hoping to hog some of the limelight this year as the tournament takes a multi-city format shape with New Delhi being the other host city.
While Capitals' skipper Meg Lanning, who has now retired from international cricket, took the Orange Cap last year for the highest run-getter, the Purple Cap went to Hayley Matthews of Mumbai for taking 16 wickets.
Amid this surge of overseas players, the Indian cricketers generally struggled for consistency and impact in the previous year, but now some of the young domestic stars will eye this WPL with genuine hope.
(With PTI inputs)