Navi Mumbai, Nov 3: Even before the magical Sunday night on the suburbs of the Maximum City, women’s cricket had already become a viable career option in India thanks to Women’s Premier League.
But from Monday morning, women’s cricket will not just be a career option, it would be a calling for the millions of girls, whose parents have remained sceptical about their daughters dreaming about wearing India Blues.
At least India’s first World Cup winning women’s team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur would love to believe after being the first among equals.
“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,” Harmanpreet 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,” Harmanpreet looked composed but one could sense that she was going through a lot.
“I’m just trying to express what I’m feeling. I am numb. I am not able to understand. He (a journalist) asked two questions; I answered only one,” she replied when asked to describe that “winning feeling” after being on the losing end several times.
If one looks at the Indian team, there was only cricketer from Metro City and that is Mumbai’s Jemimah Rodrigues.
The skipper hails from Punjab’s Moga, her deputy comes from Sangli in Maharashtra. The big-hitting Richa Ghosh belongs to North Bengal’s Siliguri while Shafali Verma plied her trade in Haryana Rohtak. There is Deepti Sharma from Agra, Shree Charani from Andhra’s Eramalle and Renuka Thakur comes from a hilly small town named Rohru.
For girls hailing from small town and even at the start of the millennium, there was no systematic coaching.
You always had to be that girl, who played with the boys and wished that her talent was recognised and the potential realised.
“I used to play with boys, and the school principal picked me up, and within a year, I started representing the country.”
In victory, one needs to be magnanimous and the Indian skipper didn’t forget her predecessors, whose also have been a part of this journey.
She acknowledged the roles of India legend Jhulan Goswami and Anjum Chopra, with whom the team celebrated the historic moment.
“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.
Staying calm when things were falling apart
India lost three back-to-back games against South Africa, Australia and England and there were apprehensions whether they can make it to the semi-finals.
But what struck with Harmanpreet was the collective calm in the inside amid cumulative chaos on the outside.
“The last month has been very interesting. It’s very rare that things don’t go according to your plan, and yet you stay so positive. We were really looking for this cup — that was something special in our group. Not a single player said, ‘What will we do now?,” she said.
“Everybody just thought, “It’s okay.” After losing the England match, we were really heartbroken. We were about to win that match, but we collapsed. We had seen this in the past. That day, (Amol Muzumdar) Sir also said, ‘You can’t make the same mistakes again and again. You have to cross that line’.”
On a day when change became the buzzword, head coach Amol Muzumdar’s words echoed in her ears.
“After that day, a lot changed for us. Every time, we cannot go on repeating the same things. We had to come with a strong mind. That night changed a lot for us. It had an impact on everyone,” she said, adding that the team opted for methods of visualisation and meditation later on.
Shared heartbreak
They have been together in times of disaster and it was only fitting that Harmanpreet would first remember her deputy Smriti Mandhana in the time of triumph.
“I’ve played many World Cups with her. Every time we lost, we went home heartbroken and stayed quiet for a few days.”
“When we returned, we always said that we have to start again from ball one. It was heartbreaking because we played so many World Cups — reaching finals, semifinals, and sometimes not even that far. We were always thinking, when will we break this?”
But then they had to shade their emotional baggages of defeats.
“We didn’t want to look back at previous World Cups — we left them there. The new World Cup had just started,” Harmanpreet added.
The journey of Indian women’s team has just become and it promises to be a memorable one. (PTI)
