"Sunday was a long day for the India captain, Harmanpreet Kaur. It began with a two-hour rain delay; it concluded with a catch at cover, taken on the stroke of midnight, which sealed a 52-run victory against South Africa and a maiden World Cup title. But amid the fireworks, tears, hugs, a lap of honour at the DY Patil Stadium, and rumours of a forthcoming winners' parade in Mumbai, Kaur found time to deliver an important message to the media."
"We've been waiting for this moment, she said. The celebration will go on all night. And then let's see what BCCI is planning for us This is just the beginning. The implication was clear. A World Cup win in a country which is cricket obsessed, which has a population of 1.46 billion and yet which has historically been slow to embrace the women's game, could be epoch-defining."
"Really, the first act of the Board of Control for Cricket in India towards Kaur and her team should be an apology: We are sorry that we were so slow to believe in the enormous potential of women's cricket. (Good luck with that one.) Australia's dominance in women's cricket was grounded in the introduction of the world's first franchise league, the Women's Big Bash League, creating an infuriatingly deep player pool which is still the envy of the world."
Harmanpreet Kaur led India through a rain-delayed final that ended with a midnight catch securing a 52-run win over South Africa and a maiden World Cup title. Celebrations followed, and Kaur urged recognition from the BCCI while calling the victory a beginning. India becomes the first non-western nation to win the Women's World Cup, breaking a long run dominated by Australia, England and New Zealand. Sustained investment and deeper domestic competitions underpin global success; Australia benefited from the Women's Big Bash League from 2015-16. The BCCI delayed a comparable franchise league until 2023 and previously relied on a limited three-team T20 Challenge.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]