On November 2, 2025, the Indian women’s cricket team created history when they won the country’s first-ever Women’s Cricket World Cup title.
The year 2025 saw the Indian women’s team finally convert decades of promise into the ultimate achievement: winning the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025, defeating the South Africa women’s cricket team by 52 runs in the final held at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai.
The event is said to go down in history alongside the historic 1983 World Cup win for the Indian men’s cricket team.
Women’s cricket in India has traversed a path of extraordinary change—from modest beginnings to global triumph. In its early years, the players faced struggles that many would find hard to imagine: sleeping on dormitory floors, eating from plastic vessels, and touring internationally without the support that men’s cricket enjoyed.
Fast forward to November 2025, and the journey culminates in the team finally lifting the world-champion trophy, a milestone not just for the players but for the sport and society at large.
In the ensuing celebrations, former female cricketers have come forward to talk about their days of struggle and how many difficulties they had to endure just because of societal prejudice, sexism, misogyny and more.
Dormitory Floors And Unreserved Trains
In the 1970s and 80s, the pioneers of Indian women’s cricket, such as Shantha Rangaswamy (India’s first women’s captain, who debuted in 1976), recalled how the team once travelled in unreserved train coaches, slept on the floor of dormitories, and carried their own bedding along with the kit bag.
Rangaswamy, in media reports, has been quoted saying, “From travelling in unreserved (coaches to) sleeping in dormitories on the floor, we (even) had to carry our own bedding, things like that. We had the cricket kit on the back like a backpack and (a) suitcase (in) one hand.”
“But then, we’re so happy that the current lot are getting all the facilities. They deserve it and the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The foundation we laid back then, some 50 years ago, is bearing fruit now. The results are showing (now of) all the efforts the girls have put in, the BCCI, the state associations, all that has contributed to the success of women’s cricket.”
Nutan Gavaskar, another torchbearer of women’s cricket in India, revealed how, due to a lack of funds, they would stay in dormitories or with families of NRIs willing to host them during foreign tours.
Speaking with news agency PTI, she said, “The Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI) was formed in 1973, and it selected the national team till 2006 when BCCI finally took the women’s game under its wings. But when I look back, those were the days when there was no money but all those women fought on for the passion and love of the game.
When we had WCAI, we were under International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC) and we were straightaway told that women’s cricket wasn’t a professional sport. There was no money since we were not considered professionals.”
She recalls, “There was one tour of New Zealand where we didn’t have funds to arrange for hotel stay for the girls. No one would believe that our team stayed at multiple homes of NRI families, who were kind enough to act as hosts.”
In another instance, Nutan said, “On another occasion, we had Mandira Bedi, who shot a commercial for a famous diamond brand. The entire endorsement money that she got, she gave it to the WCAI and we arranged for air tickets for India’s tour of England.”
“Today, nothing makes me more happy when I see women’s team travelling business class, staying in five-star hotels and getting every facility which they deserve for the hard work they are putting in,” she added.
This incident underlines the sheer lack of infrastructure and recognition. What is remarkable is how, despite these conditions, the women’s game continued.
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Plastic Vessels, Inadequate Toilets
Even decades later, players recount subpar conditions on tours and in training: shortages of money, basic amenities, and dignity of facilities.
Apparently, female cricketers would often pay for train tickets out of their own pockets, unlike for other teams, where the organisation takes care of these things.
Nutan Gavaskar said, “Attached toilets were a luxury. Often teams would stay in dormitories with four washrooms for 20 people, and often not clean. The dal would be served from a big plastic vessel as the local association organised tournaments on a shoestring budget.”
This incident reflects not only personal hardship but institutional neglect: players training and competing on the national stage without proper infrastructure. Their resilience in that phase helped lay the groundwork for the professional, better-supported era that followed.
Nutan Gavaskar spoke about how, “There was no money, no sponsors, and foreign tours were an ordeal. But there were women of steel who believed the show must go on.”
Institutional Misogyny
Institutional attitudes played a role in impeding progress. The comments of N. Srinivasan, former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), to former women’s captain Diana Edulji are doing the rounds again.
According to reports, Edulji, in 2017, after India’s Women’s ODI World Cup final loss, had spoken about her encounter with Srinivasan.
She said, “When Mr Srinivasan became president, I went to congratulate him at the Wankhede Stadium. He said, ‘If I had my way, I wouldn’t let women’s cricket happen. Women have no business playing cricket. We are only doing this because it is an ICC rule.’ He hates women’s cricket.”
She further said, “I’ve always been a BCCI basher, right from the day women’s cricket came under the BCCI fold in 2006. BCCI is a very male-chauvinist organisation. They never wanted women to dictate terms or get into this space. I was very vocal right from my playing days.”
This incident underscores that, beyond material hardship, the women’s game faced cultural and structural resistance. But the turning point comes when reforms, exposure and performance converged. With the launch of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) in 2023, equal match fees and improved infrastructure, the stage was set for the team to deliver.
This victory now is not just a trophy, it symbolises the transformation of the sport: from unreserved coaches and plastic vessels, to packed stadiums, professional salaries and global recognition.
It is a legacy borne of countless sweats, sacrifices and unseen struggles—a generation of women who quietly built the foundation, and a new generation who took the leap. The story of Indian women’s cricket is proof that grit, when matched with opportunity, can rewrite sporting history.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Business Standard, Hindustan Times, The New Indian Express
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This post is tagged under: Women Cricket World Cup, Women cricket India, BCCI, Harmanpreet Kaur, ICC Women World Cup 2025, Indian women’s cricket, ICC World Cup 2025, WWC Final 2025, icc women’s world cup india women cricket team
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