Her Time Has Come

A golden opportunity beckons the Indian women’s cricket team to script a new history by winning the coveted World Cup. This is perhaps the best chance for the country’s women cricketers to redeem the ‘chokers’ tag after two unsuccessful attempts in the finals, as this time India, along with Sri Lanka, is co-hosting the tournament. This provides the Indian women cricketers with the best stage to erase the painful memories of the past, as they will be hugely supported by the home crowd. Already, expectations are rising high, as the Indian women's cricket team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, has started to be regarded as one of the favourites of the tournament, along with Australia and England. Many of them are confident that the women’s team will recreate the epochal moment of 1983, when their male counterparts won the men’s Cricket World Cup for the first time. Some of them are so optimistic that they have already stated that there will be no looking back for women’s cricket in India if it manages to win the coveted trophy, very much like the men’s team after their first World Cup triumph. More impressive is that, instead of showing any kind of nerves or giving any impression of being under pressure, the Indian captain has already declared that this is going to be the most tightly fought World Cup, with every team having an equal chance to win.

Women’s cricket in India started in 1975 in conjunction with the International Women’s Year, and since then it has come a long way. Slowly but steadily, women cricketers are becoming household names in the country, like their male counterparts. Even India’s T20 captain, Suryakumar Yadav, has taken the name of star batter Jemima Rodrigues as the cricketer to watch in the upcoming World Cup, to be inaugurated in Guwahati today (September 30). Suryakumar believes that Jemima will play an important role in India’s success. On her part, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, perhaps taking the field in her last World Cup, will leave no stone unturned to etch her name in the pages of Indian sporting history. As a matter of fact, every Indian cricketer, starting from the experienced Smriti Mandhana to rookie Sree Charani, will make every effort to turn the tide this time.

Although India will only play its inaugural match in Guwahati, watching cricketers of international repute from close quarters may attract Northeastern girls towards cricket with the same passion as they have shown in the case of other sports. Starting with archery to weightlifting, NE girls have never ceased to make the nation proud. Still, cricket remains one of the sports in which they have not shown any interest so far. As women’s cricket is gaining popularity, NE girls may also think of taking up cricket. At present, there is no Northeasterner in the Indian women’s cricket team. Hopefully, the situation will change when the next Women’s World Cup is held. But one thing is certain: a lot of NE girls will be inside the stadium to cheer for the home team in their endeavour to breach the last frontier.