Bengaluru. July 23: In the end, the popular, much-desired, prayed, Indian victory was not there. For the record, they lost to England by nine runs at Lord's on Sunday (July 23) in the final of the ICC Women's World Cup.
Even while we wash down our disappointment, it has to be admitted that this group's peformance has unparalleled, deep-rooted significance for the women's cricket in India. From now, the game will never have to carry some tags and adjectives which it never deserved. They have made the world realise that this is serious stuff.
Never, perhaps, in the history of women's cricket in India, the team's performance was followed with such passion and intensity. Social media and websites were flooded with tweets, posts and stories about this group of brave women. Newspapers joined the party a tad late, neverthless they joined.
All thanks to the collective effort of group of wonderful players. Team effort is a much-abused term in sports but this bunch thrived on it.
There were multiple heroes. Smirti Mandhana, Punam Raut, Mithali Raj, who ended up as the second best run-scorer of the tournament, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jhulan Goswami, all put their hands up in various occasions of crisis.
But Harmanpreet's 171 will linger in our memories for a long time. The brutal nature of the knock was just one part, but it came in the semifinal against defending champions Australia.
Mithali and Jhulan too deserve a special mention. They have been around a long time now and have seen seveal ups and downs together. They were part of a World Cup final in 2005 that ended up in a heartbreak.
It's not sure how long Mithali, the first woman to touch 6,000-run mark in one-dayers, and Jhulan, the current highest wicket-taker in one-dayers, will be around or whether they will ever turn up for India again. But we need to celebrate their careers because they took up cricket when the odds were stacked heavily against women in sports.
But they fought on and achieved so much in their chosen field. They are role models not just for aspiring cricketers but for women who want to pursue their dreams. Take a bow!
Indian team's run in the World Cup has also sparked a chain of fresh ideas. Australia already have a women's version of Big Bash league, so will see an Indian Premier League for women? Irrespective of the end result, it deserves a serious debate now.
History is written by the victors, wrote German thinker Walter Benjamin at the turn of the last century. But Mithali and her colleagues have managed to write history and set the tone for future in defeat.
OneIndia News