Lord’s, which is widely referred to as the Mecca of Cricket, has also witnessed the rise of Indian cricket over time. Back in 1983, when Kapil Dev’s team lifted the world cup beating the then favorites West Indies, cricket in India got a shot in the arm and ended up becoming the unofficial national sport of the country. Something similar happened in the recent past which led to the rise of women’s cricket in India.
The Rise of Women’s Cricket in India
On 23rd July 2017, something significant happened at Lord’s again. This time it was the rise of women’s cricket in India. The Indian women’s team playing the finals of the world cup against England came excruciatingly close to winning the cup for the first time. In what was truly a nail-biting finish the runners up made the country proud and women’s cricket in India came to be seen in a new light.
In a mere two-year’s time since then, women’s cricket in India has seen a dramatic rise. Not only is there more interest in the women’s game, but we have also seen the rise of stars like Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur who have broken onto to the scene and are now being talked about alongside Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, getting the much-needed recognition and sponsorships.
Class Performances
The women in blue have been performing well on the international stage for a while now. In terms of the overall ODI and T20 record, there are only three teams, Australia, New Zealand, and England, who have a higher win percentage against India. The Indian women have dominated all of the other teams including South Africa, Sri Lanka, and West Indies who tend to play the most amount of cricket in the women’s arena.
It’s no wonder then that the Australian women’s team coach, Matthew Mott, considers the Women in Blue a force to reckon with in the future. If you take a look at the team rankings the women’s ODI team is ranked 2nd and the T20 team is 5th in the overall T20 rankings.
Referring to the Indian women’s team, Mott told cricket.com.au recently “They’re the sleeping giants in women’s cricket”. “They’ve got a country that’s mad on the game, and in their batting, they’ve already got three or four world-class players.”
And even though the team is yet to win a world cup they came close to lifting the title in 2005 and also more recently in 2017. In the shortest version of the game, the women’s team finished in the semi-final of the T20’s world cup three times in 2009, 2010 and 2018.
There are a couple of Indian cricketers who are amongst the top individual rankings as well. Mitali Raj is ranked 4th in the women’s ODI batting ranking and amongst the bowlers, there are two Indians in the top 10, Shikha Pandey at 5 and Poonam Yadav at 9. And with the likes of Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur in the dressing room, you can only expect more Indian women to rise to the top and break into the top 10 ranks.
Infrastructure Support
The rise of women’s cricket in the country can also be attributed to the maturing cricketing infrastructure in India. The past decade or so has seen cricket as a sport becoming more professional, organized and financially viable for the players.
The mushrooming of cricket academies throughout the country has ensured that more and more aspiring cricketers get an opportunity to take up the sport professionally, without having to worry about alternate careers to support themselves.
The men’s team, which has won several major international tournaments off late, has also become more professional, closely-knit and settled over the past decade and a half. They have consistently performed well at the top, which has had been a major positive of the sport in the country.
Mindset and Societal Barriers
But there is more to the rise of women’s in cricket India than just cricket infrastructure and great performances. The rise of the women’s cricket team is also a reflection of an underlying change happening in the Indian society. Slowly, women are now getting an opportunity alongside the men and thereby they have started to make headlines and leave an impact on the world stage.
The gender barrier is being broken in India and cricket happens to be playing an important role there. It’s heartening that sport is driving that change because cricket is no less than a religion in the country and the cricketers no less than Gods.
So when the likes of Virat Kohli walks out with Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy and challenges the gender stereotypes it goes a long way in not only promoting the women’s game but also inspiring the billion-plus people in more ways than one.
Big Impact from Small Towns
Another significant and encouraging trend that we see is that the current generation of women cricketers is coming from small towns and cities. The likes of Taniya Bhati, who the International Cricket Council named as one of the five breakout stars in women’s cricket in 2018, come from the city of Chandigarh. Likewise, the Indian pacer Deepti Sharma comes to from the town of Agra, in UP. There are many more like them in the team who are making a mark for themselves based on their sheer hard work, perseverance and their passion for the sport.
It shows that the game’s spread wide and far through the country and that women from these small towns and cities are embracing the sport like never before and grabbing the opportunity to make it big on the world stage.
Payment Contracts
So while things look upbeat for women’s cricket in India, one debate, which has already broken out, is the pay gap between the men and women who play the sport. And as the women’s team gets more recognition and continues winning big tournaments the debate is only going to intensify.
The BCCI, which awarded contracts to women cricketers for the first time in 2015, graded the players based on their importance into three grades. Grade A – ₹50 lakh, Grade B – ₹30 lakh and Grade C – ₹10 lakh per annum. Though the grading system is similar to that of the male counterparts have in place, the earnings are nowhere close to what the men earn.
But at this point, one shouldn’t see it as so much of a problem. As the women’s game picks up, becoming more and more popular, the salaries are bound to rise.
One should remember that the men’s game took decades to evolve and get to where it is today, but it doesn’t mean that the women’s game also needs to go through the same cycle.
However, just like fine coffee, we need to give it time to brew. So while the pundits might continue debating, it’s very important that the players come out and play the game with passion, thereby inspiring more women to take up the sport.
Being a woman in India has been hard enough and to break the stereotype and make it big in a sport which has always been male dominant is an even bigger thing. So while the win in 1983 at Lord’s galvanized an entire nation behind a sport and a team, it’s only about time that the cricket crazy nation starts to get behind the women’s cricket team which is all set to leave its mark on the world stage. The “Women in Blue” have arrived and are here to stay.
(Article by Guest Writer: Sajeel)
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