Jai Hind! Best of luck India …bring the world cup home!
Then one day we hear that the women’s team is taking on the Aussies in the World Cup final. And we are left wondering: how did that happen? Where do they come from? Can they swing the ball as Irfan Pathan does? Can they really play a square cut like Virender Sehwag? Can they bat and ball and dive on the field as well as our men in blue?
Yes, they can. They have been doing it for quite some time. In the midst of frenzy created around the men’s team, their lifestyle and their larger -than-life demi-god status, we might have forgotten the brilliant innings played by Shanta Rangaswami and beautiful spells of bowling by Diana Edulji the Indian women’s team has been playing exciting cricket for many years. And last year they stormed into the final by beating the defending champions New Zealand in the semi-finals. It’s the high point of women’s cricket in India. It’s Indian cricket’s golden moment.
But does anyone care? Not a single TV channel showed the match live. Not many newspapers saw the news worthy of front-page reports. No iconic profiles of Mitali Raj, Anjum Chopra and Jhulan Goswami — the players who took the team to new heights. One Mahendra Singh Dhoni hits a century against a Pakistani pace attack and we know everything about his life — from how many litres of milk he drinks every day to his sex life. And the women’s team reaches the World Cup final and yet remains at the periphery of our collective consciousness.