The Indian Women’s Cricket Team can win a World Cup

When Punam Raut dabbed that ball on the leg-side and set on for what seemed like a manageable single, it came as a shock to many when Mithali Raj eventually fell short. Slow-motion visuals showed that she gave up when she was a good five yards short of the crease. Didn’t try to run harder. Didn't attempt a dive. Didn’t even extend her body and drag the bat. This veteran, the highest run scorer from her ilk, she seemed tired.

In a career that’s a tad shy of spanning 20 years, that is all that Raj has done, actually. She has gone from here to there, for her girls, for the girls from this ‘cricket mad’ nation who want to play. On Sunday, in perhaps the biggest game of her expansive career, Mithali seemed tired. She seemed like she wanted to, but couldn’t, anymore.

A big reason for that is how we’ve treated Women’s Cricket in India thus far (before the Women’s World Cup Semi-Finals, that is). Until 2005, the Indian Women’s Cricket wasn’t a part of the BCCI but was governed by the Women’s Cricket Association which was formed in 1973. So, the richest cricket body in the world, the one which could bankroll a couple of smaller cricket boards and yet have enough to fund every demand that their cricketers had, didn’t have enough to absorb women’s cricket.

And even today, despite what seems like a generous announcement awarding every player with INR 50 lacs and support staff with INR 25 lacs, this is nowhere close to what ‘Team India’ gets. After an almost successful 2003, World Cup in South Africa, every player of the team was awarded INR 2 Crores. Yes, that was 2003, this is 2017. Go on, please ask why can’t our women win? Maybe they can, maybe, if we start looking at them as Team India too.

The off-field disparity between the Men's and Women's team is still pretty big

Unlike in England and Australia, the Indian women still do not enjoy a systemised domestic structure. The behemoth that the IPL is has nothing to do with the development of women’s cricket. There’s a Women’s Big Bash in Australia though and an Indian batter who had played a bit of Big Bash did something to the same Aussie bowlers that was for the world to see. So, go on, ask why can’t our women win the World Cup? Like most answers in Indian Cricket, this one will have its roots in the Board Rooms instead of the dressing room.

But this World Cup campaign has done something to Women’s Cricket in India. It has grabbed eyeballs. Albeit way later in the tournament, but it has grabbed eyeballs, many of them. It has given Women’s Cricket the attention that it craved for decades. The attention for which veterans like Mithali and Jhulan Goswami ran for the better parts of their career. And this attention must, for all money, translate into action. Translate into more attention for these girls, more care, and more time for these girls. They’re Team India too.

So, what is the road ahead then? The Women have surely done more than they could. They’ve fought out of their skins. It is time for the administrators to subsume them into the system. Look after them like elite athletes should be looked after. Provide them with a domestic structure that helps fuel the passion that they’ve instilled after this campaign, even further. In a nutshell, just tell them that they belong and that we care. These women have for long yearned for the kind of attention they’ve been showered with in the last week or so. And they still deserve more.

Harmanpreet Kaur in action

When Harmanpreet brought that back-lift from the orbit and pummeled one over the mid-wicket boundary against Australia, she compelled you to watch. She was limping almost after the halfway mark of her innings. She was struggling with cramps. But she kept on going. Maybe, maybe she knew that for the world to notice, for her very own to notice, she will have to play an innings that the world hadn’t seen before. So she did. A fearless young Indian girl took the best bowling in the game apart like it was nothing. That evening, it was an amalgamation of passion and rage at the crease, and it seemed invincible.

1983 turned things around for Indian Cricket. Suddenly there was recognition around the World. An India that was struggling at almost everything saw hope in Cricket. In 2002, at the same Lord’s Cricket Ground, things turned around for India again. A young Mohammad Kaif pulled off a David against Goliath and sent out a message that this Indian team believed. In 2017, at the same iconic Lord’s, a bunch of Indian girls set out to turn things around too. They fought, stuttered, recovered and faltered. But in that process, they never seemed like giving up.

Extra cover: A fairy-tale run with an unfortunate ending

When the weight of the nation’s expectations and attention (something that they aren’t used to at all) came on the shoulders of a 19-year old (looks 15) and 30 ODIs old Deepti Sharma, it never seemed to bother her. In her steely eyes, you could see determination, you could see optimism but not fear. She’s got that from her seniors Mithali and Jhulan, and in those 12 balls that she played, let’s hope she has passed that on to another generation of girls who would want to play cricket for India. As Team India.

So, go on, ask why can’t the Indian women win? But after this Women’s World Cup 2017 campaign, you’ll have to go beyond the cricket field for an answer.