India won a Women’s Cricket World Cup for the first time. Mumbai, 2 November, more than 40,000 in the ground, fireworks in the streets. For a lot of people it felt like 1983 again, when the men won and cricket stopped being a hobby. This time the face of it is Harmanpreet Kaur, and that feels right.
“Some dreams are shared by a billion people. That is why cricket is everyone’s sport.”
Harmanpreet Kaur after the final
A game that used to shut women out
Indian cricket moves more than $8 billion a year. Kids play it on rooftops. Until recently the women’s side of that world barely got a chair. Kaur worked for the railways and trained around shifts before she became captain. That detail still sticks with me.
Money finally arrived in 2023 with the Women’s Premier League on a private $500 million push. Cameras and contracts followed. The national pay gap with the men is still ugly, but franchise cheques are catching up. Smriti Mandhana makes nearly half a million in a season. Brands that ignored the women’s game now fight over it.
From Moga to the final
Born 8 March 1989 in Moga, Punjab. Father was an amateur sportsman. Coach Kamaldish Singh Sodhi built a women’s side after watching her hit the ball harder than her age should allow. National debut 2009. Century against England in 2013. Then 171 against Australia at the 2017 World Cup, the innings that made her a household name.
First Indian player of either gender to sign overseas when she joined Sydney Thunder in 2016. T20 World Cup final in Melbourne in 2020 with more than 86,000 in the stands. WPL title with Mumbai Indians in 2023. World Cup final against South Africa: India by 52 runs. She had been chasing that trophy since she first picked up a bat.
The next kids already look different. Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Amanjot Kaur came from towns where women’s cricket barely existed a decade ago. Kaur did not invent the path alone. She made it visible, and that is enough for me.
