Fair play: Will the World Cup win bring some fairness to women’s cricket?

In January 2018, while talking to Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, also the co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, former Indian women’s cricket team captain Mithali Raj had a simple comment: “Cricket is not gender-biased. If male cricketers deserve all the facilities, why can’t women get equal attention?”

We don’t know what Shah Rukh said to her, but last week when Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur quietly handed over the World Cup trophy the team had just won to Mithali — now a commentator — the two women looked at each other for a brief second before their emotions took over. The significance of the moment was not lost on the two cricket stars, nor anyone conversant with the long and arduous journey of women’s cricket in India — the hands that once struggled to get a decent match fee were now holding the biggest prize the game had to offer.

That evening in Navi Mumbai was special. Lashed by unseasonal rains in a jam-packed DY Patil Stadium, the Indian women’s cricket team was playing a World Cup final for the third time, while the spectators — most of them men — backed them with full-throated gusto. The happy ending had the women’s team lifting its maiden title.

The euphoria of a victory after a long and tough journey culminated in tears of pure joy — be it the players, their families, those watching on TV screens all over the country and across the globe, the spectators and even the former women cricketers in the commentators’ box. Indian women’s cricket had finally come into its own, firing the imagination of a cricket-crazy country that had ignored them for far too long.

The victory was celebrated till 4 am before the players decided to go back to the team hotel. But the streams of people congratulating the girls was unending, at the stadium and at the hotel.

“This victory will trigger an explosion in women’s cricket, not just in India but across the world. Keep in mind, India is already the largest cricketing nation with both a financial and emotional investment in the sport,” Sharda Ugra, noted cricket journalist and author, told The Tribune.

This win will also create a parallel ecosystem in states where women’s cricket has not been popular before, Ugra said, adding, “We can already see more and more girls wanting to play cricket. I just hope the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is ready and will start putting more systems and structures in place, so they have more playing opportunities. Remember what Deepti Sharma said, that ‘I hope we get to play more games’. It’s very important now for this victory not to dissipate for women’s cricket to have a regular cycle and calendar.”

Harmanpreet, too, has stressed leveraging this win for a better organised future. “It will surely bring a revolution in Indian women’s cricket, and it’s now up to the young players to encash it. This team struggled a lot for two years, and finally ended up living this day, and I hope it shall bring a huge change,” she said in the post-game interaction.

“A domestic and junior structure similar to what the men have is needed for young cricketers. I think it will be a big boost for the Women’s Premier League, one of the top female events of the world in terms of its financial strength. There will be people wanting to put more money. This win brings a lot of advantages,” Ugra says.

Still a lot to do

While the accolades are raining in, many cricketers wondered if a victory parade similar to what was arranged for the men’s team when they won the World Cup last year could have gone a long way in ending the debate of “step-motherly” treatment towards women cricketers.

“The big change came when women’s cricket came under the umbrella of the BCCI, that too after the ICC forced the BCCI to do so. Earlier, it was funded by fellow women cricketers, something that was really annoying,” said Ugra.

“It will take time for female players to get perks and acknowledgment on par with men, but this can only be done if we make use of this moment,” added Shikha Manchanda, a coach who trains young girls to play cricket in Ludhiana.

Region’s contribution

It’s been a tough ride for the 36-year-old Indian skipper from Moga, Harmanpreet Kaur — there have been a lot of bright spots in her glittering career, but the ultimate prize always eluded her, until now.

From facing allegations of having a fake degree to writing in support of retaining a coach, Harmanpreet has endured it all. She’s now the torchbearer of the game. She has led India in four T20 World Cups, and this was her first ODI World Cup as captain.

Harleen Deol, who once had to request the Punjab Chief Minister to help her practice in the Mohali stadium, was another important part of the middle order, as was all-rounder and Mohali girl Amanjot Kaur, who once tried her luck to play for Chandigarh.

Harleen stole the limelight off the ground too, when she asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who hosted the team in Delhi, a question that perhaps no one has till now — “Sir, what is your skincare routine, because there’s such a glow on your face?” The easy laughter all around showed a confident bunch at ease with their achievements, happy in each other’s company.

Coming from a humble background, Harmanpreet and Amanjot started playing cricket with boys just to teach them a lesson that they cannot belittle their love for the sport. “When I used to design bats for her, she always used to say, ‘I will also play with branded bats one day’, and I would just smile back,” Amanjot’s father Bhupinder Singh, a carpenter by profession, told The Tribune. The all-rounder, who batted, fielded and bowled brilliantly in the World Cup, was once denied admission to the Sector 26 coaching centre in Chandigarh before a local coach, Nagesh Gupta, spotted her bat swing speed. It was at that moment in 2016 when she started playing serious cricket.

This World Cup also finally saw Rohtak’s Shafali Verma live up to her billing of being a prodigious talent. Shafali, who was not even a part of the squad, ensured her name got etched in record books. The young opener joined the team just two days before the semifinal against Australia after opener Pratika Rawal got injured. She’d been sent by God for something good, she told the team.

In January, when she was dropped from the squad, she didn’t share the news with her father, who had suffered a heart attack, for fear it would exacerbate his ill-health.

Himachal Pradesh, too, celebrated the exploits of Renuka Thakur, who led the bowling attack. Hailing from Parsa village in Rohru, Renuka’s father, Kehar Singh Thakur, passed away when she was just three. Kehar had named his son after Vinod Kambli, but it’s Renuka who’s now the hill state’s shining star.

Harmanpreet has experienced enough disappointment to know the transformative power of victory. She posed with the World Cup trophy sporting a T-shirt that said: ‘Cricket is a gentlemen’s everyone’s game’. Her team has made sure it is.

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