Unlike other occasions, Sunday’s match when India face hosts England in the Women's Cricket World Cup final at Lord's will be widely watched by millions of Indians across the country and the globe.

Indian women’s cricket is on a roll and these players are getting the cricket limelight they deserve, finally! The women in blue not just have the chance to alter the course of cricket history but their stellar performance is bound to make attitudes and perceptions change.

 

For years, women’s cricket was treated with a certain amount of condescension, a sport in which there was minimal or zero interest. No endorsements, no publicity, it was not even considered elegant enough to watch for long periods. 

The remarkable fact is that women’s cricket has blazed such a trail in India despite overwhelming odds in terms of lack of institutional support, corporate sponsorships and public interest.

The meteoric rise of the women’s team not only shows that it has smashed gender barriers but also demonstrates an extraordinary perseverance and commitment. It cannot have been easy to keep at the game and improve quite so much in an atmosphere of indifference.

The Women’s Cricket World Cup 2017 has been the most watched, most covered and most well rewarded of all time. This is probably the first time that women’s cricket is being taken seriously not just by spectators and the media but also players themselves. It is also the first time that it is really been in the spotlight. Often the women’s game has gone under the radar with not too many viewership or coverage.

 

But the significance of the day goes far beyond what it means to their cricket careers. India's win in the 1983 men's World Cup final at Lord's turned the country on to limited overs cricket and led the world's second-most populous nation to become the sport's financial powerhouse.
 

An India win on Sunday will have equally far-reaching consequences.

The positive from this is that women’s cricket is now firmly established and opens the doors to younger players who may have hesitated in taking up the sport so far. While it will be a long time before women’s cricket enjoys the near cult status that the men’s game does, it will now be taken as a serious sport , one which can be a career option for many young women. With majority of sporting talents coming from India’s small towns and rural areas, this throws up opportunities for young women across the country to dream big.

 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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