In the mid-nineties, The Hindu was my source of information for anything cricket. It did not matter whether it was the men’s team, women’s or just the under-16. I read everything in those 2 pages that had cricket in them. That is how I knew Purnima Rau was the captain of the Women’s National Cricket Team. It was a moment of pride as she was also from the twin cities. And thus started my following of the women’s game.
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Through the nineties and early noughties, as I nearly watched every single game the Indian men’s team played(sometimes even bunking school), the joy of watching the game was supplied in abundance by the 4 stalwarts of the game. Their shots, their determination, their love for the game and our victories brought about a joy that is seldom found elsewhere. I knew every player who ever played a game. This set of players was followed by a more aggressive set of players who also brought about the same joy through their bowling and batting but their attitudes were different. Their celebrations were different. Their centuries were marked with hurling abuses at no one in particular, and bowlers gave send offs to batsmen after dismissing them. The joys of watching the game remained in their strokeplay, in our victories and their wickets.
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Over the last 22 years, neither have I seen all their games nor known every player that has played but I’ve known the Anjum Chopra’s, Mithali Raj’s and Jhulan Goswami’s. While I occasionally watched their game, it was as we call it “slow” and “boring”. So I kept to following their scores and and knowing their end results. That changed in the preceding two years. I now knew more names in the team than just the captain. Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Veda Krishnamurthy and Deepti Sharma. But I still had not watched these players a lot.
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When you follow the game so closely for over two decades and analyze the game in great detail, the emotion goes away from end result.
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Smriti Mandhana smashed a 90 and a hundred in her first two games. Smiling after every boundary, smiling after her century and just smiling away in general. Heck, she even smiled as she moved in her crease to play her shot.
One of the best sites of the game this world cup has been Mithali Raj reading a book as she awaited her turn to bat. No care in the world. At peace with herself. Just sitting there reading a book. I’ve missed that from the Men’s game. Too much self focus and pressure makes it impossible to do such things. Just look at her. In all glory reading a book.
And then there was Veda Krishnamurthy. Dancing with Mithali Raj as she awaited her own turn to bat. Watch this and tell me we din’t miss this from our cricket. Yes, we get the glorious shots, the breathtaking fielding and the aggression but the simple joys?
This is not to take away from the cricket itself. That glorious ball Jhulan bowled to Lanning is definitely one of the balls of the year. Smriti Mandhana striking her way through to a century had some delightful strokes. Mithali Raj, as evergreen as ever. And then there was Harmanpreet Kaur.
The Harmanpreet kaur who played in the Big Bash League that no one knew about. The young, modern Harmanpreet Kaur who is your typical modern day batsman. The Harmanpreet Kaur who stormed India into the finals of the 2017 World Cup. If this team doesn’t get you hooked to women’s cricket then what will?
This is not to expect them to win the world cup. This isn’t an article to talk about how their cricket has progressed through the years and is now attractive to watch. This isn’t about dissing men’s cricket either. This is just to say that women’s cricket right now has a certain unadulterated joy in the game that is seldom found elsewhere in sports today.
Good luck ladies. Keep the joy. Keep the happiness and keep making us happy.
