Mumbai: The Indian women cricket team’s feat at Navi Mumbai on Sunday evening was not only a victory, but sent out a strong message to all young girls who wish to take up the sport as a career.
Lifting of the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup by India will serve as a calling for the millions of girls, whose parents do not believe they can don the blue uniform.
“We have been talking about this for many years – we’ve been playing good cricket, but we had to win one big tournament. (But) without that, we couldn’t talk about change,” Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur told the media after India’s win.
“At the end of the day, fans and the audience want to see their favourite team win. It’s not that we weren’t playing good cricket, but we were waiting badly for this moment, and today we got a chance to live it. I don’t know how to express it, but I’m so happy and so proud of this team,” she said.
“I’m just trying to express what I’m feeling. I am numb,” she added.
What was so unique about the team that lifted the trophy on Sunday is that it had only one member from a metro city. That was Jemimah Rodrigues. The others are from two-tier and even three-tier cities in the country where the talent pool lies, but cricket is not considered a viable option for girls.
While Harmanpreet is from Moga in Punjab, while her deputy Smriti Mandhana belongs to Sangli in Maharashtra. Wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh belongs to Siliguri in north Bengal and Shafali Verma to Haryana’s Rohtak. Deepti Sharma is from Agra and Shree Charani from Andhra’s Eramalle. Renuka Thakur comes from a small hilly town named Rohru.
All of them will not only be inspirations for small town girls but their parents as well. Hopefully, many of them will go that extra mile to get their daughters a good coach, as Amanjot Kaur’s father did.
“I used to play with boys, and the school principal picked me up, and within a year, I started representing the country,” Harmanpreet said.
She recalled the support she received from greats like Jhulan Goswami and Anjum Chopra, who celebrated the historic moment with the team on Sunday.
“When I joined the team, Jhulan di was my biggest support. She was captain back then. She always supported me in my early days when I was very raw and didn’t know much about cricket,” Harmanpreet said.
“In the initial days, Anjumdi supported me a lot. I always remember how she used to take me along with her team. I learnt a lot from her and passed it on to my team. Both of them have been a great support for me. I’m very grateful that I got to share a special moment with them. It was a very emotional moment,” she added.
