Women in Blue - Nishka Kulkarni
Women in Blue - Nishka Kulkarni - Grade 8 - Pune, India
In India, a country where cricket is a religion and cricketers are gods, many don’t bother to stop and think about the goddesses of the sport. These goddesses were never in the spotlight. The amount of media, support, and attention they’ve received is barely of significance compared to the men’s team. Many of us might not find it believable that women have been playing cricket for India for over 50 years! It is only in the last decade that the people of India are slowly starting to recognize the determined, hard working women who play for our country.
The Women’s Cricket Association of India was founded in Pune in 1973, the year Sachin Tendulkar was born! The team was led by Shantha Rangaswamy and they played their first test match against the West Indies and won by a large margin. They made it to the One-Day International (ODI) 1978 world cup final and the ODI finals in 2006 as well. The Women in Blue have also made it to the T20I World Cup finals once, while they qualified for the semi-finals four times. They’ve won all the editions of the Women’s Asia Cup, except in 2018, won a silver medal in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and a gold for India during the 2022 Asian games.
It is essential to understand that in a sport like cricket, resources like media and marketing are crucial. But the Indian Women’s Cricket team did not receive adequate support until recently. They achieved a lot and continue to do so based on their own merit. Even though they didn't have the resources that the men’s team did, their performance was still outstanding and their growth trend has been positive.
Cricket is a team sport and every single person is essential to make a strong team, every story matters. Smriti Mandhana from Sangli, Maharashtra, who was the number one woman batter in India from 2013, she still is, was inspired to start playing after she watched her brother play at the Maharashtra state Under-16s Tournaments. Harmanpreet Kaur, who is the current captain of the India women’s national cricket team and the Mumbai Indians for the WPL, started playing cricket at her hometown Moga in Punjab. She first played the game with a hockey stick with the boys in her neighborhood. These cricketers, along with many more, like Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami and Jemimah Rodriguez who come from different cultures, backgrounds, small towns and many struggles, are united by the enthralling game.
Just as Kalpana Chawla reached for the stars and cleared the path for Indian women in space, just like Kiran Bedi paved the way for women IPS officers, the Women in Blue are redefining what it means to be females playing a male dominated sport. They continue to inspire millions of young girls across the country, not just in cricket but in all sports. Cricket is not a sport about just the runs, the wickets and the statistics. It is about bringing people together and playing for the billions of hearts of our country. It takes great courage to do so and many young girls look up to these brilliant women who have this fire inside them. And perhaps, they may help kindle yours too!