By Bhavna Singh
Let me begin with a confession – neither am I a sports enthusiast nor am I a cricket fan. Yet, here I am penning this piece on the Indian women’s cricket team. Congratulations, Team India! The historic ICC World Cup 2025 win is one of the best victories that we could have asked for.
And the win is historic for reasons more than just one. Look around today and there is enough and more buzz about the Women in Blue, and rightly so. The final was overwhelming for women and cricket fans alike. Led by Harmanpreet Kaur, the entire nation witnessed a power-packed innings from Shafali Varma and a stellar five-wicket haul by Deeptie Sharma. The overall disciplined bowling performance, coupled with wonderful performances from Smriti Mandhana and Richa Ghosh, left no stone unturned in the team’s efforts to get hold of the Cup.
While this victory is a testament of the never-say-die commitment of the women’s team, some other equally important victories that the Team scored off the field, need to be highlighted.
One of the other bigger victories of our proud women’s team is the way that they have brought the women’s cricket narrative from a one-line mention, huddled in perhaps the last para on a sports page, to bringing it to the front page, literally and figuratively. This by means is no lesser task than the on-ground pressures of winning the final.
Take a bow Team India, you ladies have achieved the unthinkable in a country that almost worships cricket. A country that almost worships our cricketing heroes, today, has a new narrative. The new narrative moves from the conventional ‘gender narrative’. It’s about building sporting careers for women too. It’s about wanting my daughter to become a sportswoman too. That’s a paradigm shift in mindset.
My heart beamed with joy this morning. Quite challenging, especially when I am heading early to the gym on a Monday morning. Today was not the usual Monday morning blues. The gym was buzzing with conversations about the women’s cricket final. Of course, the conversations touched upon the ‘wow’ moments of the games. Also, a few fellow gymmers were kind enough to proclaim a verdict that henceforth women’s cricket will get more eyeballs, visibility and viewership. Amen to that.
Hold on! These conversations, the social media buzz, the videos, the memes, the emotions and the whole nation celebrating this win – not easy ladies, not easy at all.
We are talking of the international competitive standards of play, with a focused sense of fitness, agility and training, in a country where a lot more needs to be done when it comes to women’s health. This is the biggest victory, according to me. The victory is to bring women’s health to the forefront. How do we build healthy sportswomen who can compete and win at global levels. How do we work at converging women’s health with women’s sports. You women are true Rockstars for fuelling this well-deserved attention on women’s health.
To go to the field and give your best every time, on days when you have the blues, this blue brigade has made us proud, for reasons more than just one.
As whatsapp conversations beam with congratulatory messages for our women champions, let us as a nation prioritise women’s health. Let us look at widening access to healthcare for women, especially in rural India, so that no woman is denied healthcare. Let gender not decide healthcare. Instead, let healthcare become gender agnostic. Let us celebrate equality in its true sense.
Bhavna Singh, Vice President- Communications, Bharat Serums and Vaccines Limited (Mankind Group Company). Views expressed here are personal.
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