A League Of Her Own

The IPL has created household names in cricket, made a ton of money for sponsors and cemented a place in every global sports fan’s calendar for the past 12 years. It’s well past time that India’s women cricketers enjoy success too.

- Anuradha Santhanam

The year was 2017.

The India women’s cricket team began its World Cup campaign against England, with a victory that was not just convincing, it was thundering. Smriti Mandhana’s phenomenal 90-run knock, ably backed by skipper Mithali Raj, saw the Blues take a 35-run victory – and Raj become the first woman to score seven successive half-centuries in WODIs in the process. Within the world of sport, and within the microcosm that sports enthusiasts and journalists occupy, the Women in Blue became, for some time, the prime topic of conversation. Reams of newsprint and headlines were dedicated to them. Yet, soon after the Final (which India lost), the newness, the sheen disappeared. As did the attention they desperately needed, and thoroughly deserved.

Women’s cricket leagues have (officially) been around since 2009, when the first edition of the Australia Women’s Twenty20 Cup was played. It wasn’t until it became the Women’s Big Bash League though that it garnered any media attention, and serious coverage for Australia’s female cricketers. The 2017 edition, which also featured India’s Veda Krishnamurthy, Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur, even broke viewership records.