Evolution of Women's Cricket in India

Few members of current Indian Women's Cricket Team - Starting from left Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jhulan Goswami, Punam Yadav

          Indian Women cricket team has been top of their game since the last two-three years. With their performance in ODIs and T20Is, this team has achieved the most important thing that is thousands of passionate spectators. But unfortunately, even ten years back, it was not same not even comparable with today. People hardly knew there was a women’s cricket team that represents India. The men’s team were light years ahead of the women’s team in every aspect of the game like available facilities, viewership, media coverage, fame etc. But now, the women’s team has come a long way and made their presence felt, as now they share the same page with the men’s team.
          Indian Cricket legacy is more than a thousand years old but it took quite a long time for a cricket crazy nation to introduce its women’s team. While Australian and English Women’s team played the first game of women's cricket in the year 1934, the first game that India played was 42 years later.

          The Indian Team lead by Shantha Rangaswamy debuted in test cricket against West Indies in the year 1976 and two years later they made their ODI debut against Australia under the captaincy of Diana Edulji. It was a revolutionary move because back then it was believed that girls are good for only household works. The patriarchal society did not allow the girls to explore their potential in other fields. Most of them were deprived of getting basic education, so cricket was beyond their imagination. But thanks to some exceptional parents who allowed their girls to chase their dreams, so they ended up playing for India and inspired thousands of young minds to love the sport.

Two veterans of the game - Shantha Rangaswamy and Diana Elduji

          Though the revolution had started, it was not enough to challenge the ideology of that society. A well-established myth takes years to break. But it was evident that the change had begun. As time passed, the popularity of cricket took over football in India. Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar became household names. But unfortunately, the massive popularity was limited to men’s cricket only. The gender discrimination in India affected the progress the women’s cricket massively. Negligible viewership, poor infrastructure and facilities, no media coverage turned women’s cricket into an almost non-existent entity. While men’s cricket reached millions of hearts, women’s cricket was just a name that was barely surviving.

          Undeniably we had some great players of the game in the women’s team who gave their all to serve the nation like the men’s team did. The only difference was people were well informed about the men’s team but hardly a few knew one or two names of women cricketers. India has produced some world-class players like Shubhangi Kulkarni, Purnima Rau who deserves much more for their service at the international level. 

Anjum Chopra, the first woman cricketer from India to be awarded honorary life membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)

          As women’s cricket was not at all popular in India, the young girls did not have any role model to inspire them. After the 1983 world cup win, Indian cricket had grown so much that little girls showed interest to play the sport. Their interest gradually transformed into a passion. That accelerated the revolution of women’s cricket in India. In the late 90s and early 2000, The Indian team was blessed by the arrival of the greats of Indian cricket, like Anjum Chopra, Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami. They took the women’s cricket into another level. Today they share many records among them and most importantly they started to build the viewership.

Indian Team after winning the T20I series against West Indies 

          It is the result of the collective hard work of all every individual who represented India at any point of their lives and all those little girls who dared to lift the bat ignoring the society, that today Indian women’s team can reach millions of their fans. Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana have become household names. They are getting the respect and the recognization they deserve. The future generation is getting ready to take charge. All of these did not come overnight. Indian women team has travelled a long journey and every player contributed to something that the current team is getting. There is a lot more to come. The journey is yet not finished but it has just begun.