Evolution of India Women's Cricket over the Past Few Years

(Indian Women cricket stars Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur)

Over the past few years, Women's cricket in India has undergone several changes, allowing it to grow more with every passing day. This has transformed the sport into a global phenomenon, which has also influenced various other young female cricketers to take up the sport. But there was also a time when fans didn't know about women's cricket in India. With the help of initiatives taken by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), women's cricket is now much more popular among Indian cricket fans. It is also among the fastest-growing women's sports in recent years. There are several reasons behind the same, which will be discussed in detail as we delve into the evolution of India Women's cricket in the past few years.

1. Increased Investments

Earlier, the India Women's cricket team was regulated under the Women's Cricket Association of India (WCAI), which faced various challenges for decades to improve the condition of women's cricket in the country. Although the Women in Blue were playing the World Cups, it was still not able to grab much attention from the Indian audience, which resulted in the first major drawback for Women's cricket. This continued for several years till 2006 when BCCI decided to start providing investments for the growth of Women's cricket.

After the intervention of BCCI, the role of WCAI was decreased as the players reported the issues they faced while being operated under them. Many players of the Women's cricket team at that time even revealed that there was a lack of infrastructure and money for the WCAI to grow Women's cricket, which became the primary reason for the BCCI to intervene. Various opportunities were given by the BCCI to promote Women's cricket, not only internationally but also domestically.

2. New Face to India-Pakistan Rivalry

One of the most important factors behind the early growth of India Women's cricket was by giving a new face to the India-Pakistan Rivalry. The international matches between India Women and Pakistan Women started to be played, which attracted a lot of audiences to watch the female cricketers go against each other in the Cricket's El Clasico.

(India Women vs Pakistan Women in the year 2022 at Commonwealth Games)

Till now, India Women and Pakistan Women have faced each other in 11 Women's ODI matches where India Women have been dominant by winning all of them. The El Clasico rivalries of men's cricket are also brought down to women's cricket, which was a great initiative by the International Cricket Council and the respective cricket boards, which promoted women's cricket in India to a great extent.

3. World Cup and Asia Cup Performances

The most prestigious tournament in International Cricket, the Women's World Cup, also started gaining attention after Indian cricket fans showcased their support of the Indian Women's cricket team. This became possible in the year 2005 when the India Women's Cricket team reached the finals of the ICC Women's World Cup. Even in the ICC Women's T20 World Cups, the India Women's cricket team has been the runners-up once while being the semi-finalists four times.

(India Women at the 2022 World Cup final against Australia)

Although the India Women's cricket team is yet to win any ICC trophy, they have improved a lot over the past few years which has generated a lot of attention from the fans. In the Asia Cup tournaments, India's women's cricket team has shown its dominant performance, just like the men's team. Out of 8 Asia Cup tournaments which have been held so far, the India Women's cricket team has been dominant with an impressive total of 7 titles, and finishing as the runners-up in one season.

4. Equal Wages

The Board of Control for Cricket in India took another great initiative towards the growth of women's cricket by announcing that it would provide the same wages to the players of the women's national team and men's national team. This also broke the gender barriers, allowing more youngsters to be a part of the game and showcase their skills and dedication to the country.

In August 2023, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced that it would provide equal wages to men and women cricketers, breaking the barriers and uplifting the women's cricket scenario. This was announced by Jay Shah on Twitter, after which the scenario of women's cricket changed a lot in the country.

5. Introduction of Women's Premier League

The growth of India's Women's cricket team was substantial, but it received a major boost with the introduction of the Women's Premier League. The T20 League for Women, similar to the IPL, has grown a lot over its two seasons, grabbing a lot of attention from cricket fans. Along with that, a few of the teams in the WPL are similar to that of the IPL teams, which allows the fans to support their favourite franchise across two different tournaments which are held one after another.

(WPL 2024 finals photoshoot with Meg Lanning and Smriti Mandhana)

Although the BCCI launched the T20 league initiative in the form of the Women's T20 Challenger, it didn't receive much support from the fans, and there were also several challenges which the board faced. Sourav Ganguly gave in to the idea of launching the WPL, which has been a great success for Women's cricket in India. The implementation of this idea was perfectly done by the BCCI, due to which the inaugural season of the Women's Premier League created an impression among cricket fans.