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It is an uphill task, and India Women need you, dear fans

In the final at Lord's, from 191 for 3 India Women collapsed to 219 and lost by 9 runs — to England Women, and to India.

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Dejected India Women watch their side collapse against England in the final © Getty Images
Dejected India Women watch their side collapse against England in the final © Getty Images

By now it has been mentioned so many times that you probably know the story by heart. It was the final of the 2017 Women’s World Cup. The match was played at Lord’s, a ground that opened itself to women later than what most of you think. England Women scored 228 for 7. From 191 for 3 India Women collapsed to 219. There were still 8 balls left in the match.

India Women lost by 9 runs — to England, and to India.

India had reached the final in 2005 as well. They had run into a ruthless Australia that day and were shoved aside without much compassion or mercy. However, India’s success story in the tournament — yes, India is a nation where coming second counts as success — had some impact.

For once, Mithali Raj emerged as a superstar. She was already famous, but this was a stage like none other. She was the first Indian Woman to play a brilliant innings in a semi-final to knock a strong side out of the World Cup. New Zealand were superior on paper, but they were no match for Mithali’s 91 not out.

This did quite a few things to Indian cricket. Consider Veda Krishnamurthy, for example, who had already found an idol without meeting her. The little feisty girl, all of 12, fought with her classmates once so that she could hand over the bouquet in person.

Yes, Veda had made up her mind. But then, so had Smriti Mandhana, who was only 9 at that stage.

There was Jhulan Goswami as well, whose fire had been sparked during the 1997 World Cup final. She was already an active cricketer at that point, but being a ball-girl in a World Cup final meant watching finalists from close quarters: that changed things.

Jhulan did not have a similar impact. That probably has to do with the fact that Indians rarely aspire to become fast bowlers. However, Jhulan had unknowingly inspired a girl across the border: Kainat Imtiaz, barely a teenager in 2005, was ball-girl in an Asia Cup where Jhulan played.

It is probably normal that the batter inspired a group of Indians and a fast bowler inspired, among others, a Pakistani.

But that was in 2005. India Women played 3 Tests in 2006. They won a Test at Taunton, and with it, a series in England. They next time they played a Test was eight years later at Wormsley, England. They won that as well. They played South Africa later that year — and won.

India Women have won their last 3 Tests, 2 in England and 1 against South Africa at home. Their last Test was in 2014. The 3 Tests spanned a period of 11 years.

The importance of telecast

Records were dug up when India Women won the T20I series in Australia.They became the first Indian side to win a bilateral series in Australia.

Something else happened as well after that tour: “Viewers have started following us. Until then people hardly knew who we were — apart from, of course, Harman [Kaur], Mithali and Jhulan,” Vanitha VR had told CricketCountry.

The tournament was, after all, broadcast back home. They could put faces to names for once. The fans recognised them — before promptly forgetting them all over again.

There was some following during the World T20, but that was played in India, and there was little interest once India Women were knocked out.

When West Indies — remember, they were World Champions — came to India later that year, there was no telecast. By then the fandom had fizzed out.

Had there been no live streaming on the ICC YouTube channel the Indians would never have witnessed Harmanpreet Kaur’s heroics in the final of the World Cup qualifier against South Africa.

Records were also dug up when they won the Asia Cup, but only by the most dedicated of fans — for the final was all that was telecast.

They probably knew that Harmanpreet and Smriti had acquired WBBL contracts, but that was about it. The matches were streamed. One could even watch them on the move, on cell-phones. But there was hardly any taker.

Nobody in India got to see India’s triumph in the Quadrangular series in South Africa just before the World Cup. Nobody knew, for that matter.

Mithali told me in an interview last year: “I believe that if you need something to be popular, you need to market it at grass-root level. Women are following cricket more than they used to, especially after IPL has come in: why not capture that audience?”

No, that did not happen. When India came into the tournament there were, as usual, three familiar names: Mithali, Jhulan, and Harman.

The odds were heavily stacked up against them. They had to take on the world, but the biggest battle was against their own country. Not only did they have to leave a mark on the stage, there was also the added responsibility of inspiring a new generation.

It took them one match. Mithali read Rumi in the dugout as Smriti went on a rampage. When it was her turn, she calmly set a new world record, that of 7 consecutive ODI fifties. Smriti scored 90. Four spectacular run outs followed, and India took England down.

There were suddenly some murmurs. Hey, who are these girls? Wow, is Jhulan really that tall? Didn’t this girl Smriti wear glasses? Is Mithali that good?

By the time she scored that hundred against West Indies, Smriti was already the new crush of Indian males in the twenties, at least on social media. Little Ekta Bisht sent Pakistan packing, Sri Lanka werebeaten, and India suddenly found themselves with 4 wins in 4 matches.

The ‘groupfies’, all of them clicked by Sushma Verma, got shared indiscriminately over social media. Facebook and Twitter made up for the lack of impact in 2005.

They suddenly became the toast of the nation. It helped that the men were playing a series against a weak West Indies side in an unfavourable time zone. There was Wimbledon to compete with, and amidst all this India were trounced by South Africa and Australia.

The equation came down to 3 wins in 3 matches, against New Zealand and two other big teams.Mithali scored a hundred. Veda played a blinder. Rajeshwari Gayakwad, thrown into the mix, made small task of New Zealand.

But the real impact was created by Harmanpreet, whose semi-final blitzkrieg will be hailed for years to come. Perhaps the impact had been made, after all.

And then came the heartbreak.

While there will be exceptions…

India Women are where they were a dozen years back: runners-up in the World Cup, no more. A new Veda or a new Smriti may have thrown a tantrum or two by now, insisting their parents to take them to cricket camps.

The starry-eyed girls probably want to become Mithali or Jhulan or Harman — or even Punam Raut or Deepti Sharma or Smriti or Veda or Shikha Pandey or Poonam Yadav.

There are always one or two children who get inspired and choose their careers accordingly. Didn’t Jhulan do the same while watching two non-Indian teams?

…what about the bigger picture?

Plenty of Indians had claimed that they were inspired by Dipa Karmakar and her feats in the Rio Olympics last year. They had Googled Produnova, understood little, watched the final performance anyway, and celebrated her coming fourth.

In less than a year’s time Dipa was forgotten.

Let me ask the fans now.

If you think Dipa is a one-off, do ask yourself. Do you know what Mary Kom does these days? What about Sakshi Malik? Aditi Ashok? What about PV Sindhu, whom you had cheered for in the final like there was no tomorrow?

I remember the fans sharing a collage of India’s female sport stars, mocking a fairness cream brand. The message was that India does not need fairness creams with these spectacular women around.

As things stand today, the fairness cream and its commercials survive, even thrive. The stars have vanished from public memory. Of course, the hardcore fans have kept track, but they have ceased to become mainstream.

Be honest: when was the last time you had switched the television set on with the intention to watch Dipa Karmakar in action? Did you even bother to check whether gymnastics was being telecast?

Or had your fandom died out immediately after the Olympics got over? Had you merely pretended to be ‘inspired’ by Dipa, performing your responsibility towards Indian sport by blaming cricket for everything?

You did cheer for The Eves on Sunday night, didn’t you? You have mentioned how they have won your hearts, about their ‘inspirational’ fight, how proud you were, and more. Oh, and you have also blamed men’s cricket.

It is unlikely that there will be such frenzy over a single match involving The Eves anytime soon.

This was the chance they had — not only to win the World Cup, but to make women’s cricket mainstream.

This was the greatest opportunity for them to ensure their matches were telecast in future (are you even aware of their upcoming calendar?) and hence find their way into mainstream, replacing the highlights of meaningless matches India had won (never anything else).

Who will, after all, not follow the World Champions?

Unfortunately, that never happened. The entire process — from 2005 — needs to be redone. And till WIPL happens, they will have to compete with IPL as well.

It is a long journey ahead for them. However, they can dream of finding help on their way, and that help needs to come from you.

Will you show enough interest to influence the broadcasters to telecast matches? Or will you forget the tournament conveniently after getting ‘inspired’ and forget the tournament and this Lord’s near-miss entirely?

That, Indian fans, is a choice you have to make. They will do their bit, perhaps more than you are aware of, but will you do this for them?

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