As India exploded into celebrations after its cricket team lifted the Women’s World Cup on Sunday midnight, the victorious players posted pictures on social media sharing how they went to sleep together, hugging the Cup.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur joined the club of World Cup winners like Kapil Dev, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. Her team members put in their best efforts in bowling and fielding when the match appeared to be swinging towards South Africa.
The tales of each of the cricket players are as riveting as the story of the final match.
Indian women cricketers played their first international mach in 1976 and they won the World Cup after a wait of 50 years defeating strong teams like Australia and South Africa. Harmanpreet Kaur wrote, Cricket is no more a gentleman’s game, cricket is now everyone’s game. The International Cricket Council put both Dhoni and Harmanpreet in a single frame to celebrate the victory.
New cricket stars have emerged after the World Cup final. Harmanpreet, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma were already established players. People knew about them. But this tournament has thrown up stars like Jemimah Rodrigues, Renuka Singh, Pratika Rawal, Shafali Varma, Shree Charani, Radha Yadav, Richa Ghosh and Amanjot Kaur. They are now household names.
It was the brilliant catch by Amanjot Kaur near the boundary line that proved to be the turning point of the final. The South African captain Laura Wolvaardt had stood like a wall against the Indian bowling attack.
Amanjot hails from a lower middle class family from Mohali. Her parents had no money to buy her a cricket kit. She used to take bats from mohalla boys to play cricket.
Her father says, she cropped her hair to look boyish and once, she even played a boys’ match.
Deepti Sharma, declared Player of The Tournament at the World Cup, not only scored 58 runs and took five wickets in the final, but also set a record of scoring more than 200 runs and taking 15+ wickets in a women’s world cup. She scored 225 runs and took 22 wickets.
Hailing from Agra, Deepti’s elder brother used to play state-level cricket, who later set up an academy, where Deepti underwent training.
Shafali Verma’s selection was a miracle. When opener Pratika Rawal was injured before the semifinal, Shafali was brought in. In the final, Shafali scored 87 runs and a 104-run first wicket partnership with Mandhana. Shafali considers Sachin Tendulkar as her icon.
Her family hails from Rohtak, Haryana. Shafali’s father Sanjeev Varma said, he had no money to buy bat and gloves for her daughter. She used to play with old, torn gloves.
Winning the world championship crown did not happen overnight. There was a time when cricketers like Mitali Raj, Anjum Chopra, Jhulan Goswami had no facilities worth the name. Women cricketers had to travel in unreserved railway compartments, take their beddings with them and sleep on floor. They had no annual contract with BCCI.
When the team emerged as runners up in the 2005 World Cup, each player got Rs 1000 each, and a princely sum of Rs 8000 for playing eight games. This time, after winning the World Cup, the team has earned a reward of Rs 51 crore.
A-grade players like Harmanpreet and Smriti Mandhana now get Rs 50 lakh as annual fee from BCCI.
This change came three years back, when Jay Shah removed the inequality in fees paid to men and women cricketers. Pay parity was introduced. Now women cricketers get Rs 15 lakh for playing Test, Rs 6 lakh for ODIs and Rs 3 lakh for playing T20 matches.
BCCI has invested 16 times more in women’s cricket for coaching, training and medical facilities.
Our daughters can prove their worth if they get good opportunities. They have proved this by winning the World Cup. There is still a long way to go. World Cup tournament was an event that they won with confidence. Picture Abhi Baaki Hai.

Bihar : Why no anti-incumbency about Nitish?

Tuesday is the last day of campaign for the first phase of assembly elections in Bihar. On Monday and Tuesday, all the major parties fielded their top leaders and campaigners to canvass votes across the state. They included PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Yadav, Mallikarjuna Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi, Asaduddin Owaisi and even Lalu Prasad Yadav. Rahul Gandhi was conspiciously absent on Monday.
A row erupted after Prime Minister Modi told a rally that RJD forced Congress to accept Tejashwi Yadav as the CM face after putting its ‘katta'(pistol) to the temple of Congress leadership. Modi alleged that Congress leaders are now deliberately trying to spoil the pitch for Tejashwi Yadav.
Tejashwi Yadav responded by saying he has never heard a Prime Minister using such words against the opposition. Priyanka Gandhi told a rally in Saharsa that Modi speaks about abuses only when elections are due. “He should better set up a Ministry of Abuses and concentrate on his own work”, Priyanka said.
Yogi Adityanath was in full form on Monday. Without naming Rahul, Tejashwi and Akhilesh Yadav, the UP chief minister said, “there are three monkeys, Appu, Pappu and Tappu. One does not want to tell the truth, the other does not want to hear the truth, and the third does not want to see the truth.”
Political observers are surprised over the energy and stamina put in by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. It was being spread in political circles that the CM was unwell, but the pace with which Nitish is addressing his rallies daily has surprised everybody. His campaign is fully focussed.
Nitish Kumar has been the CM for last 20 years, and yet political observers are surprised there is no anti-incumbency wave against him.
Many observers agree that Nitish Kumar has the support of Extremely Backward Class (Ati Picchda) and most of the women voters are happy with his governance. Tejashwi Yadav had dubbed Nitish as ‘Paltu Chacha’ and ‘Putla’, but even he is unable to understand how his Chacha has emerged as the champion of these sections of society.

Panic in Bengal over SIR

The Special Intensive Revision exercise in 12 states and union territories including Tamil Nadu and West Bengal began on Tuesday. There are reports of panic among a section of people in Bengal.
Long queues outside Kolkata Municipal Corporation has been seen of people seeking birth and death certificates for their offsprings and parents.
Similar queues are also being witnessed outside government offices in Birbhum district. In some areas of Birbhum, people are withdrawing their savings from bank accounts fearing their money may be “frozen” if they are unable to prove their citizenship.
Baseless speculations are being spread in Birbhum that those whose parents’ names do not figure in 2002 voters list, may be deported and their banka accounts will be frozen. Many of them are Hindus whose parents had crossed over to India nearly 30 to 35 years ago.
The Election Commission has made it repeatedly clear that no voter will lose his citizenship due to SIR. In Bihar, several lakh names of voters were cancelled during SIR but none of them lost their citizenship. There is no need for spreading any such confusion. Voters need not fear. They can contact the ECI helpline to get the correct information.
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