On top of the world

Institutional support has empowered women's cricket

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The nation may justly be proud of the historic victory of the Indian women's cricket team at the ICC Women's World Cup but note should also be taken of the institutional support that has made this hitherto male-dominated sport a viable profession for talented young sportswomen from all walks of life.

Old timers recall the days when women's cricket was considered an unprofessional sideshow with scant access to equipment and even less money - with presenter Mandira Bedi famously donating her commercial earnings for the women's team to buy air-tickets for a tour of England. In that sense, today's heroes - such as Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, or Deepti Sharma - stand on the shoulders of players like Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, both record holders, and players such as Diana Eduljee, Shantha Rangaswamy, and Nutan Gavaskar, who fought to bring women's cricket to the forefront of administrators' attention.