The much awaited victory of CWC 2025 by Women’s Team India in Navi Mumbai is not only a simple victory of a game of cricket but is more a great statement that India is emerging as an important sports nation in the comity of nations with gender equity & participation, women emancipation & empowerment with open competition, qualification, merit and deserving superiority. The scenes of victory celebrations throughout the country during the midnight represented the nation’s will to act, perform and win and get what it duly deserved long ago.
On November 2, 2025, India created a new history in women’s world cricket. As we all know that India and Sri Lanka were the joint hosts for the 2025 edition of the ODI Cricket World Cup this time, India achieved the unachievable and also what it consistently missed all these decades of international cricket competition and supremacy. India put curtains on the past and by the great commitment, talent and hard work of the players and the management & coaching staff secured a well deserved victory over South Africa. The fact of the matter is that while in the Semi-finals number 2 at the same venue in DY Patil Stadium-Navi Mumbai, Australia was indeed the favourite team, but in the finals, the favourite team was surely India and the Team India lived up to the huge expectations of its fans and followers throughout the world.
What is sweetly & quite surprising is that the match was being watched live by crores of people throughout the world like they usually watch the men’s cricket competitions. There were great cricketing celebrities and past players present in the Stadium in the finals watching the whole match besides the ICC and BCCI top functionaries. They included Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Anjum Chopra, Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami who have contributed a lot to the game and achieved greatness in the past for the game and the nation. The ICC President, Jay Shah and the BCCI top officials were also witness to the competition of the highest order. The stadium was jam-packed and an estimated crowd of forty thousand people watched the match and cheered their favourite players. This is surely unprecedented and path breaking so far as the world women’s cricket is concerned.
The people of India have developed a special love for the game of cricket and with the passage of time over the last one century it is also being viewed as an expression of one’s commitment to his or her nation once international competitions take place. In India specially, Hockey and Cricket have been at the centre of attention as international sports and this love and attention dated back to 1920s and 1930s. While India played Hockey at the international level in the Olympics in 1928 in Amsterdam (Netherlands) after getting due registration and recognition in 1927, the Team India played its first international Cricket test match in 1932 in Lords-London. Ever since those days, this obsession and passion continued unabated.
Unfortunately, the game of Hockey in India, due to several avoidable and unavoidable reasons, touched its nadir after 1982 and the lull continued for almost two decades. However, things changed and the great game was rejuvenated by the turn of the current century. India is now back in the game concluding their international competitions of Hockey by the podium finish at all the three important levels i.e Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. It is a great comeback with high hopes for the future of the game in the country and the management, infrastructure and the planning of the game at the highest level are showing great promise ahead.
Back to women’s cricket, the first CWC for women was organised in 1973 in London two years before the first CWC for men at the same place in 1975. The second CWC for women was organized in India in 1978. This time it was the 13th edition of the CWC for women organized by the ICC in India and Sri Lanka jointly. India reached the finals of the game twice in the past in 2005 and 2017 but couldn’t win the cup. The victory in 2025 has been achieved after a great struggle and wait of 52 years by the three generations of women cricketers in India. The victory this time by Team India is reminiscent of the men’s first World Cup victory led by the great Kapil Dev in 1983. That victory changed the whole scenario for Indian cricket and placed it on a high pedestal of international competitions for the times to come. India’s women cricket has also achieved a similar and great success to be followed by more such successes in future course of time.
Sunil Gavaskar, a great name in international cricket, in his comments after the event said, “It was third time lucky for the Indian women as they kept their nerve to win the coveted ICC ODI world Cup. They had been in two finals before and had lost narrowly the last time to England at the Lords, where for the first time in decades, the English supporters outnumbered the Indian supporters at the ground. The loss by nine runs at that time for India was hard to take as the Indians were cruising to a win till Harmanpreet Kaur (the Captain), who was batting beautifully, got caught up at deep square leg……this time, it was Harmanpreet who was the captain, and she sealed the win with a spectacular catch. This has to go down as one of the best wins in the history of Indian cricket-both in the men’s and women’s game”.
Boria Majumdar, a senior sports journalist in India said, “Hopefully, this World Cup inspires many more Mithalis, Jemimahs, Shefalis and countless others who will carry the torch forward for women’s cricket in India…..ten days ago no one expected Shafali Verma to be anywhere near the World Cup final. Today, she shone with bat and -unexpectedly- with ball on a night Indian women’s cricket will never forget. She was not even a part of the squad, and was eventually called up in the most unfortunate circumstances when Pratika Rawal was injured”.
Shafali Verma eventually said that the Almighty had planned about her role in the tournament and she was there only to fulfil her duties. She remains thankful to the team, her captain and the management who entrusted her with the big responsibility at the knockout stage. She duly deserved to be the player of the final match. Deepti Sharma was extraordinarily brilliant throughout the series putting in plus 200 runs and getting 22 wickets and also making a mark by her fielding, catching and run-outs. She was rightly adjudged for the player of the series award. In addition she took a fifer in the final match with a half century in batting and sealed the victory by her superb performance.
Smriti Mandhana amassed 400 plus runs in the tournament in tune with her reputation and gave consistently a great and promising start to the team’s batting along with Pratika Rawal (who also scored 300 plus runs). Harmanpreet Kaur, who was always at the receiving end of the criticism and ridicule as the captain, kept her cool and showed fantastic grit and patience and made a difference by her leadership based upon her experience as the senior most player of the team. She is an example of the moral of the story: ‘never say die before death’. Richa Ghosh, the wicket-keeper batter and Sree Chanana, the spin wizard played crucial roles along with the recognised speedster of the team Renuka Singh Thakur. Ultimately, the team effort and the team spirit had the last laugh and Team India (women) emerged as the CWC2025 winner for the first time in history.
It would be important here to acknowledge the role of the head coach of the team, Amol Mazumdar. He is Mumbai based and knows the tricks of the game very well. Though he couldn’t make a mark as a big player of the game himself but as the coach of the team for the last more than two years, he contributed a lot and changed the destiny of the women’s team enabling them to occupy the podium as the ultimate winner of the tournament and for the first time in that capacity. The credit is obviously due to the head coach and his team as well.
Wilson Hbk, a sports commentator in Tamil Nadu, in his social media post said after the victory, “Before the 2012 Women’s T20 World Cup, Mithali Raj, the then captain of India, arrived at a press conference in Bangalore. She waited patiently for nearly fifteen minutes, only to be told by the team manager that no journalist had shown up. With quiet dignity, she left the room. Later that same day, almost every sports journalist in India crowded into another hall, this time for MS Dhoni’s pre World Cup press meet.
That was the reality of women’s cricket in India back then. Neglected, unnoticed, and tucked away in the corners of sports pages. India went on to lose all three league matches that year and bowed out early. Another press conference was arranged after the team’s exit. This time, only one journalist turned up. The most humiliating part? Mithali was asked to turn her face left and right before answering questions, just to create the illusion of speaking to multiple reporters.
As she left the room, Mithali said quietly but firmly, ‘Hopefully, women’s press conferences will also be packed in a few years.’ She added, ‘I’m done seeing women’s cricket occupy a corner of the sports pages. It’s upon us to change that.’
Thirteen years have passed since that moment. Slow, hard-earned process. The Internet questioned them when equal pay was announced. Go to kitchen jokes were there till the league stages of this world cup. Yet, they’re on the podium today with the trophy. In these thirteen years, Indian women’s cricket has seen remarkable growth. The Women’s Premier League began, players found opportunities in the Big Bash League, and most importantly, they earned recognition. Today, look at the stands. Packed crowds, electric atmosphere, and among them, Rohit Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar cheering for the women in blue”.
The world cricket fans and followers look up to India and it is all due to the results pouring on the ground. Cricket is not only a game today, it has become an industry, a profession, an entertaining serial involving sentiments, patriotism and commitment full of talent and planning. It gives pleasure to know that the Indian women’s cricket has occupied the frontline in the emerging scenario.
Comments