After World Cup win, time for India to build from ground up

As the women’s cricket team rejoices, focus must turn to better support to the domestic players

- Samreen Razzaqui

When Harmanpreet Kaur lifted the World Cup trophy under the lights of a packed DY Patil Stadium on Sunday night, it was the joyous culmination of a journey for Indian women’s cricket that had endured decades of near anonymity and indifference.

One that saw years of quiet persistence by those who played the game for the sheer love of it.

Now that the wait for a global accolade has finally ended, what comes next in the women’s game after the euphoric celebrations are done will also be extremely important.

Former India captain Anju Jain, who is now a coach and had seen women’s cricket move from the margins to mainstream sporting and social consciousness, called it “heartening” to see full stadiums for the home team’s games and household recognition for the players.

“Before us too, a lot of cricketers played purely for passion... for nothing. I saw that when Shanta [Rangaswamy] di and Diana [Edulji] di were still play-” she recalled. “If those players hadn't kept going through those times, we wouldn't have reached here.”

Jain captained India to the semifinals in 2000, but she believes that things started to change a few years later after the Board of Control for Cricket in India hesitantly allowed the Women’s Cricket Association of India to merge.