I wanted to write a very different piece. In fact, I had almost finished my copy before I decided to press the delete button out of frustration. While I still feel delighted about the WPL auction and what happened with Kashvee Gautam and Vrinda Dinesh, I am equally gutted by the toothless performance of the women’s team against England. No WPL auction can help take the game ahead if the national team continues to play spineless cricket.
The truth is the India women’s team has won very few tournaments of significance. Some individual efforts stand out, but there are no major trophy wins to write home about. And if we take stock of the game between the start and end of 2023, nothing really seems to have changed. The highly talented Smriti Mandhana continues to be inconsistent, Shafali Verma rarely plays a match-winning hand in a key game against a good opposition, and the middle order led by Harmanpreet Kaur hasn’t really done much to set things on fire.
Beating teams like Bangladesh or Sri Lanka to win the Asian Games gold can’t really be an index of progress. Those aren’t top-tier sides, and India shouldn’t even be measuring success against them. We continue to struggle against England or Australia, and our successes against these two teams continue to be few and far between. So, while we celebrate Smriti and Harman, the truth is the men’s game has seen way more success in bilateral contests. And that’s where things need to get better. Especially at home. To get bowled out for 80 against England speaks of a very sad story. Losing a series isn’t an aberration and on the day of the WPL auction, this spineless effort would have hurt fans of the women’s game even more.
I know equality is still some distance away. I know critics will take the BCCI on and ask why they are not implementing the home-and-away format for the WPL. Why are they still treating the women’s game as a compulsion rather than a viable economic property? The truth is that performances like the one on Saturday night weaken such arguments. A Commonwealth Games gold beating Australia and England or a World Cup win would push the BCCI. There would be a clamour for change. To do way more than is currently happening.
India had to win the 1983 World Cup for the BCCI to push for the 1987 World Cup on home soil. The 2007 World T20 win shaped the IPL. A nationalist surge is directly linked to performance and that’s what is hurting the women’s game at the moment. From our best, we need more, and the truth is we haven’t seen them do so consistently enough.
Coming to the WPL auction, it yet again had its moments. From 10 lakhs to 2 crores for Kashvee was a real story. At one level, it showed that India still doen’t have good domestic fast bowlers. At another, it shows that an auction will forever have its share of surprises. To see Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu go unsold, for example, was a huge surprise. Is it because she isn’t Australian or English, and most teams have Australian or English coaches as part of the management? If you are Athapaththu, you must be wondering what more you can do to make it to the WPL.
To see Veda Krishnamurthy get a team was a pleasant surprise. While it was reward for hard work put in, it also outlined the fickleness of the auction process.
While the auction has thrown up some great stories, one really wants some of these stars to step up and support Renuka Singh in the Indian line-up going forward. That’s what the WPL is for. To help Indian cricket. And while it’s still too early, it has to be said that fans expect better. We expect to see our players challenge the best and win, and more so at home. To see the team get bowled out for 80 and lose yet another home series wasn’t the best way to celebrate a historic day for Indian women’s cricket.
As I said, I was forced to press ‘delete’, for the evening effort, or lack of it, clearly overshadowed the WPL auction euphoria. That’s the truth. The quicker we accept it and stop glorifying individual performances, the better it is for the game in India.