The Indian players who made history at ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup

Earlier this week, the Indian women’s cricket team made history by winning its first World Cup title, almost 50 years after the team played its first international match.

The women fought hard for their victory. After a three-match losing streak in the quarter-final stage, they overcame external and internal challenges to defeat then-undefeated Australia in the semi-final and a determined South Africa in the final.

The grit and determination they show on the field is reflected in their lives off it.

Many players come from small towns in India and had humble beginnings. They come from families that had to sacrifice a lot to support their dreams and believed in them when no one else did.

These are women who started their careers by playing cricket in village lanes, with used bats and unstitched balls, many of whom doubt their ambition because of their gender. Their legacy was forged because they kept going when it would have been easier to stop.

After achieving the historic win, captain Harmanpreet Kaur ran towards her father, Harmandar Singh Bhullar, the moment she saw him. She jumped on him and wrapped her arms and legs around him as he hugged her. The captain – and his daughter – celebrated.

Harmanpreet was born on March 8, 1989 in the town of Moga – long known as the drug capital of the northern state of Punjab – and grew up in a family that kept its ambitions simple and its discipline constant.

Her father, a club cricketer and county court clerk, sold milk from the family’s four buffaloes to support the family. Cricket equipment was often out of reach.

Her first coach, Yadwinder Singh Sodhi, once recalled how she trained using old rackets and seamless balls because that was what was available.

Mr. Bhullar ignored the neighborhood refrain of “ladki ko khilaake kya karoge?” -What will you achieve by letting your daughter play cricket? He did not argue with the naysayers. He simply allowed his daughter – the eldest of three siblings – to play.

From those open courts in Moga to the moment they lifted the World Cup at Mumbai’s DY Patel Stadium, the values ​​haven’t changed for the Bollars: work hard, stay consistent and keep going.

Amanjot Kaur’s all-round bowling story begins in her father Bhupinder Singh’s carpentry shop in Punjab. When cricket equipment was unaffordable, he made his first bat himself, carved from leftover wood.

Neighbors wondered why the girl was encouraged to play. Keep working. I kept playing.

In the World Cup final, its impact came at turning points. In the 10th over, with South Africa leveling, dangerous opener Tazmin Brits was run out with a collect and a clean toss. Later, with opposition captain Laura Wolfhardt past her hundred and the chase still alive, Corr steadied herself under a swirling ball at deep midwicket. I fiddled with it twice and it stuck. The stadium erupted in cheers for this catch.

The roots of this calm are deep. On her India debut in January 2023 in South Africa, she made an unbeaten 41 at number seven to lift India from 69th to 5th. After that match, in a press conference – which she attended virtually with no other journalists present – she spoke quietly about her father’s years of sacrifice. It was not decorated. She acknowledged what made her cricket possible.

It will be re-caught in the final. The hands that formed her first racket are part of that moment, too.

Radha Yadav’s left-arm bowling journey is measured in a few strides along a single lane in Kandivali, a western suburb of Mumbai. After landing her first contract with BCCI when she was 19, six years ago, she bought her family a small grocery store called Radha Mini General Store. It is located just a few steps from the sidewalk stall where her father, Omprakash Yadav, sold milk and vegetables for years.

The house above the store is approximately 225 square feet (21 m2). Space was limited. It was not ambition. Her elder sister Soni, who also played cricket, gave up the sport so that Radha could continue playing. The family supported one dream and stayed with it.

She went from tennis ball cricket in the narrow lanes to the highest stage of the sport because she was encouraged not to stop.

The morning after India won the World Cup, a photo went viral: Omprakash, grinning broadly, walking alongside coach Amol Muzumdar during the team’s lap of honor on the field, the World Cup held high, on his head.

One frame held what the years had carried: the street, the store, the family, the belief.

Fast bowler Renuka Singh Thakur lost her father Kihar Singh Thakur in 1999 when she was three years old. Her mother Sunita took a government job to support the family. Her income was modest, but her support for her daughter’s dreams did not waver.

Thakur first played cricket in the lanes of her village and later moved to the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association’s Residential Academy in Dharamshala – one of the first residential facilities for women cricketers in the country.

The distance from home and training requirements were difficult. There were moments when continuing felt uncertain. The coaches who worked with her reminded her of the sacrifices her mother made to make playing cricket possible.

This awareness kept her in the game.

In this World Cup, she led India’s new-ball attack, overcoming a long spell of absence due to injury. In the final, she bowled eight overs for 28 runs. No release, no redundancy, no shift in discipline. A performance that helped shape the match without attracting attention.

A mantra based on patience, self-control and memory.

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