November 2, 2025 will stay with me forever. It was the day India won the Women’s Cricket World Cup for the very first time—a day when a billion-plus hearts rejoiced in unison, and yet another glass ceiling came crashing down. And yet, the fact that we still call it the Women’s World Cup, while the men’s version is simply the World Cup, says so much about where we’ve been—and where we’re finally headed.
The Myth That Women Don’t Belong in Competitive Sport
Like most Indians, I grew up steeped in cricket. Names like Shanta Rangaswamy, Diana Edulji, Anjum Chopra, and Mithali Raj floated through my childhood, but women’s cricket rarely commanded the attention it deserved. The teams of earlier decades played with heart, but they weren’t considered in the same league as Australia, England, or New Zealand.
All that changed in 2017. Harmanpreet Kaur’s blistering 171 in the semifinals against Australia and Smriti Mandhana’s consistency catapulted the Indian women into global cricketing stardom. From that moment, my interest in women’s cricket overtook my devotion to the men’s team.
Growing up in the seventies, I hardly saw girls playing cricket—or any so-called ‘boys’ games.’ Girls were expected to stick to kho-kho, lagori, or skipping. Career paths were predictable: teachers, doctors, bankers, dancers… but rarely sportswomen. In a developing country, choices were often driven by financial security, and for girls, sport simply didn’t promise it.
Dreams That Defied Logic, Powered by Unshakeable Self-Belief
Every woman in India’s champion team carries a story of grit.
There is Kranti Goud, who walked barefoot to coaching sessions because she couldn’t afford shoes, let alone a cricket kit. There is Amanjyot Kaur, whose father, a carpenter, carved her a bat because neighborhood boys refused to share theirs. There is Renuka Singh, named by a father who didn’t live to see her fulfill his cricketing dream—a dream her mother carried forward with fierce determination.
These aren’t just anecdotes. They are reminders of what it takes for a girl in the subcontinent to dream, to persist, and to break through.
An Epoch-Making Shift for the Subcontinent
This World Cup win is more than a trophy; it is a tectonic shift.
When India’s men won the World Cup in 1983, it changed the country’s relationship with cricket forever. Today, India is a global cricketing superpower, both economically and culturally. But that influence was unthinkable until that one victory cracked open the door.
This World Cup win for the women holds similar transformational potential. A jam-packed stadium in Mumbai and 20 million screens worldwide witnessed history—and belief. This is the moment that will inspire not just Indian girls but every girl across the subcontinent to dream audaciously. If they could turn a ‘gentlemen’s game’ into a game for everyone, there is nothing they cannot reshape—sports, arts, science, business, politics, and beyond.
The Men Who Stood Behind the Women Who Rose
What makes this team extraordinary isn’t just their skill—it’s their spirit.
Their celebration was humble, grounded, and generous. They included Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj—their seniors who couldn’t achieve this dream—in their joy. Jemimah Rodrigues spoke openly about her anxiety, offering millions the comfort of knowing vulnerability is not weakness. They empathized deeply with the South African team they defeated in the finals, raising the bar for sportsmanship.
Then there’s Shefali Verma—a name missing when the squad was first announced. A prodigy in poor form, she didn’t tell her recovering father she had been dropped. But fate intervened: Ritika Rawal fractured her leg in the last league match, prompting an SOS call. Shefali stepped in, scored nearly a century, took two crucial wickets, and won India the final. If this isn’t a story of faith and miraculous possibilities, what is?
And Amol Muzumdar, the coach whose own cricketing career coincided with the Sachin era, never found a place in the Indian men’s team despite an extraordinary domestic record. Yet he found his glory here, guiding this team to victory—much like the arc of the ‘Chak De India’ movie storyline, prophetic and poetic in its own way.
A New Standard of Leadership and Sisterhood
During their interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jemimah reflected on her semifinal performance against Australia. She said, “I got all the glory, but history should give equal credit to Harman, Richa, Deepti, and Amanjyot.”
That is the essence of this team. That is the essence of women everywhere: putting collective success above individual triumph, without demanding applause.
A Win That Redefines What’s Possible
This victory will take a long time to fully sink in—for the players, the support staff, their families, and fans like me. But one thing is already certain: the world of women’s sport in India will never be the same again.
This is not just a cricketing milestone.
It is a cultural reset.
A narrative rewrite.
A declaration of possibility.
And if there is one message this team has gifted every girl watching, it is this:
Your dreams are not illogical. Your ambition is not too much. And your time is now.
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