The World Cricketers Association released a ranking of ten franchise cricket leagues on Thursday and the findings around the IPL are worth paying attention to nine days before the tournament starts on March 28.

The IPL is the richest and most watched T20 league in the world and the competition that inspired every other franchise cricket model that has followed it.

But the WCA assessment tells a more complicated story about how the tournament performs when the measure is not money or viewership but something else entirely.

What the WCA found and where the IPL fell short

The World Cricketers Association assessment covers ten franchise leagues across the world and rates them across multiple criteria related to how players are treated within those competitions.

England's The Hundred leads with a score of 75.2 followed by South Africa's SA20 on 68 with the IPL third on 62.6.

The IPL received maximum points in two areas. Average payment and payment reliability are both categories where the tournament scores perfectly which makes sense given that IPL contracts are among the most lucrative in any sport. The problems come elsewhere.

The IPL lagged specifically in categories covering the right to organise and dispute resolutions which are areas where The Hundred and SA20 have built stronger frameworks for players to raise concerns and seek resolution when things go wrong.

WCA Chief Executive Tom Moffat was measured in how he framed the findings. "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."

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The context behind the WCA ranking and why it lands now

The timing of the WCA ranking is not accidental. The IPL came under significant scrutiny in January when the BCCI instructed Kolkata Knight Riders to release Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman from their squad amid ongoing political tensions between India and Bangladesh.

Mustafizur had been bought at the auction for Rs 9.2 crore and was released before the season began through no fault of his own as a cricketer. The incident drew criticism from players and cricket observers around the world and sits directly in the kind of territory the WCA assessment is designed to measure.

The BCCI's broader policy of preventing contracted Indian male players from appearing in franchise leagues outside the IPL has also been a long-running source of tension.

Players from other countries are free to participate in multiple leagues across the calendar year while Indian players are restricted to the IPL.

That restriction has financial and career implications for the players involved and is another area where the IPL's framework is seen as falling short of the standards being set elsewhere. The Hundred launched in 2021 and SA20 launched in 2023.

Both are younger and smaller than the IPL in terms of revenue and global reach. The fact that both rank ahead of the world's biggest cricket tournament on player welfare and rights is the finding that will generate the most discussion as the new season approaches.