By Trisha Ghosal in Mumbai
They stepped out of the hotel for coffee, two world-class athletes who had scripted a brilliant evening for their team just a night earlier. Hours before their next match, they needed fresh air, a break from hotel walls, a sliver of normal life in a foreign country. What followed was a moment that stripped away their sense of safety: followed, touched, violated. In a city that had been celebrating them.
And yet, instead of universal empathy, the reaction fractured.
Some questioned: Why did they go out? Why without security?
That is where the story turns from shocking to shameful.
Because when women are forced to justify the most ordinary acts, walking outside, breathing freely, harassment becomes only the first crime. The second is the interrogation that follows.
These cricketers had to put their kits back on and compete just hours later. Imagine stepping into a stadium, performing under global scrutiny, while a fresh memory gnaws at your peace. Sport is mentally unforgiving as it is. Now add fear. Add humiliation. Add the weight of being far from home.
And then picture being blamed for it.
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We are a country dreaming of Olympic bids and global admiration. We love our stadiums loud and our headlines triumphant. But hosting the world demands more than lights, logistics, and patriotic pride. It demands a culture where every athlete, every woman, is safe beyond the boundary rope.
It is easy after an incident like this to swing wildly: either calling India incapable of hosting major events, or dismissing this as a one-off that doesn’t reflect “who we are”. Neither helps. Pretending everything is fine is as harmful as declaring everything broken.
What we need is something far braver. Accountability without defensiveness. Reflection without outrage gymnastics. Improvement without excuses.
And let me say this plainly as a woman in a profession still dominated by men: when even inside press boxes, instead of anger at the perpetrator, some voices wondered why these women dared to step outside. That is a cultural alarm bell ringing loudly.
We owe these athletes and every woman who walks a street, more than a shrug. More than blame. More than hollow patriotism.
We owe them a country where a cafe walk isn’t a gamble. Where safety isn’t a privilege. Where the only question an athlete must answer on match day is: How will you play?
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