Premala 'Kaki', the rock behind pioneers of women's game

THE ninth edition of the Women's T20 World Cup is only 24 hours away.

- KALYANI MANAGLE

A cricket bonanza where multiple matches will be played under lights, where every play will be analysed, every moment will be captured by a multi-camera setup. Social media will get involved and the extraordinary athleticism of the elite cricketers will undoubtedly get viral. That is how far the women's game has come now.

However, this was not always the reality for women's cricket anywhere in the world. Certainly not in India. And that is where the pioneers of the women's game and those who stood behind the players become an integral part of this story. "The attitude of society towards women's cricket was not that positive when we started. There were so many doubts about our abilities,” Ujjwala Nikam-Pawar, one of the first ladies of women's cricket in India, told this daily.