The Indian Women’s Cricket Team and the unfortunate war they keep losing
On International Women’s Day last year, the Indian Women’s Cricket Team met the hosts Australia in the Final of the T20 World Cup. The iconic MCG brimming with the kind of rich grandeur only akin to a cathedral, became the seat for a monumental clash that broke all kinds of attendance records. The biggest attendance in a women’s cricket match? Check. The highest for a women’s sporting event in Australia? Check. The largest audience for a men’s or women’s ICC T20 World Cup Final? Check. Check. Check.
It goes without saying that a stage as big as that and a match with stakes as high as that could get to any professional player in the world. More than a battle inside 22 yards, the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final was a psychological challenge and that’s probably where the war was lost. Despite their spirited unbeaten run in the tournament where Harmanpreet Kaur’s troops conquered every obstacle and climbed every mountain, they heartbreakingly fell one step short of the highest summit.
The title of world champions continued to elude India as it had done three years prior in Lord’s. As painful as being denied the privilege to lift the trophy was, one would’ve sensed that fate had other ideas for the talented bunch of cricketers. An entire country with its billion people had followed the tournament closely as Shafali Verma launched sixes into the crowd, Smriti Mandhana drove elegantly, Harmanpreet Kaur led fearlessly and Poonam Yadav picked up wicket after wicket.
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Despite the loss and the tears of the Indian Women’s Cricket Team, there was plenty of hope on the horizon. They had all the resources to dominate the world of cricket and they had the whole of India behind them, cheering them at every step of the way. A dream is hardly lived overnight, it’s a struggle that needs consistency, dedication, and discipline. Runners-up in two World Cups in three years is as good a place as any to begin. Cause for optimism, right? Well, not exactly.
Just a couple of weeks after the grand showdown in the Final, the Coronavirus reared its ugly head and became an unstoppable pandemic ravaging mankind around the entire world. There was no room for cricket anymore or any sport for that matter. The only thing the world could do was wait. Even as international cricket resumed in the month of July in 2020 and the Indian Premier League, with all its pomp and glory had to be hosted outside of India, something else seemed to have been conveniently forgotten.
The women’s team was left in the dark about the possibility of playing further cricket in a coronavirus-inflicted world. Several bilateral series were planned, postponed, and ultimately cancelled discreetly. As the men’s team’s tour of Australia went on garnering attention and fanfare from every quarter, several players of the women’s team found themselves lacking clarity about their immediate future.
Despite several empty promises from the BCCI, the Indian women’s cricket team did not have a national camp in 2020 and while the domestic season for men began with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in January, the domestic season for women begins only on 11th March. To put it bluntly, except for the four-match Women’s T20 Challenge in November last year, the Indian women’s team have lost exactly 364 days of international cricket from their professional lives. This is a rather odd scenario considering that Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies, and Pakistan have all played at least a series each during the same time-frame.
Even ahead of the first match against South Africa, the first international match for the Indian Women’s Cricket Team since the T20 World Cup Final in Australia, and the first ODI since November 2019, the Indian Team could take part in only three training sessions owing to quarantine restrictions. The importance of rhythm in sports can hardly be overstated and it is absolutely futile to expect results when the engine hasn’t been oiled regularly.
Therefore, the massive 8-wicket defeat to South Africa Women in the first match hardly came as a surprise. The team clearly looked like a side suffering from severe rustiness. On a decent batting surface, several players made questionable shot selections and there was a glaring lack of chemistry in the team.
The absence of renewed focus on the Indian women’s cricket team from the BCCI could also have more disastrous long-term consequences. In the wake of the pandemic, every sport is struggling to meet commercial demands, and therefore, the competition for commercial interest and attracting eye-balls is more severe than it has ever been. Slashed revenue streams mean that organisations across the sporting ecosystems primarily focus on investments that deem instant rewards, or men’s sports.
Not exposing more volume of women’s cricket to the general audience could lend it a severe blow in terms of interest from both the audience as well as commercial activities. You don’t need me to tell you the dangers this could pose to women’s cricket which already suffers from a plaguing lack of exposure and interest.
The two finals in Lord’s and Melbourne are a witness to this. The Women in Blue who are hardly used to playing in front of intense and passionate support suffered nervous collapses in the 2017 and 2020 World Cup finals. Former Captain Mithali Raj even touched upon this following the loss in the 2017 World Cup final.
Therefore, the team that was one step short of the ultimate prize last year now finds itself at the bottom of the barrel. They have to begin all over again and the challenges are bigger than ever. No matter how many battles the team continues to win, they keep losing the war.
*Article written before the 2nd ODI game.
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