With the many moving videos to have come from the Indian women’s Test victory at the Lord’s available, what could possibly be said in writing? We saw Kranti Gaud’s family watching her write her name down on a tape on the visitors dressing room honours board where it will emerge in gold lettering after Kyle Jamieson and Nathan Smith.
Event Context
Then there was Yastika Bhatia’s walk through the long room after her century, head bowed, applause in her ears before taking the right turn towards the visitors dressing room. After writing her name on the batting honours board tape, she turns around to ask, “Kitna tha?” having lost track of exactly how much she’d scored.
A little over an hour-and-a-half into the final morning, she is heard again from behind the wickets. “One through the gate!” she calls out to the bowler. And so it was to be. Through the gate left open by Sophie Ecclestone’s bat and pad to Sneh Rana. Through the gate the women have pushed open inch by inch over the last decade to earn themselves respect, notice, even a slice of territory in the public imagination.
The idea of a women’s Test Championship will have the numbers crunchers spluttering over whatever it is they drink. But mutterings about ratings, revenues and earnings is par for the course around the Indian women’s game, and indeed the women’s game everywhere. India’s next engagements are the women’s Asia Cup, the Asian Games, hosting Zimbabwe at home and travelling to South Africa. Discussions about what lie ahead for the women these days somehow tend to be far more forward-looking than what usually festers around the men’s team, replete as that is with attention and riches.
At this point, particularly after a relief-inducing six-wicket ODI victory on Tuesday night over England, it does look mean and unfair to hold up the women’s win at Lord’s against what the men, reigning world champs no less, churned out in T20Is over the last few weeks. Even if you tried, it is impossible to not set these parallel worlds on a collision course. For the broadcasters, the men never exit the women’s game. Through the Lord’s Test, Sony habitually cut off live action and incident, promoting the men’s games that lay ahead. Despite the many stumblings and spankings received.
Player Focus
They came through those gates like they usually do, their celebrations devoid of triumphalism, always bearing grace. Organising themselves into a guard of honour to bid farewell to the retiring England players Tammy Beaumont and Heather Knight. After the match, paying tribute to their rivals’ careers in the Indian dressing room, handing over a signed T-shirt, wishing them well.
Team Analysis
But let’s do what the writing people do – which in this case starts with a thanks to Jemimah Rodrigues. As she spoke on behalf of her team to Beaumont and Knight, she brought a fresh perspective to the game that her team and the obsessed pernickety country behind that team, hold dear. “Cricket,” Jemi said, “is all about making memories.”
India’s women ensured that in an epoch-marking women’s Test, it was their side that owned the memories. In the sporadic Tests England and India play – 16 overall – India have dominated, particularly since the turn of the century. India’s first Test win over the England women came as late as August 2006 in Taunton. Before being hosted by Lords, India’s other two wins happened in Wormsley and DY Patil Stadium. Since ICC took control of the women’s game in 2006, Trent Bridge was the only established English Test venue that staged a women’s Test before this Lord’s game.
Let’s turn the attention back to the memories created by the women, even as manspreading begins. The sight of Kranti’s family watching her write her name in the Lord’s honours board tape, triggered a reminder. At home, she is called Rohini. It is a beautiful Sanskrit-origin word, loaded with astral and celestial references. But the name everyone knows her by – Kranti – suits her best. Like it does indeed Indian women’s cricket. The word of course means revolution. Alongside victory and defeat, that is indeed what we are witnessing from the Indian women.
Match Outlook
Once again, an Indian women’s team performance at Lord’s has sparked a new strand of conversation at a wider level. About whether there needs to be a women’s World Test Championship, India coach Amol Muzumdar says “We would be pleased if that happens.” He spoke of the three Tests the Indian women would be playing in the year. India lost to Australia in Perth in March and then won at Lord’s. They are next scheduled to play South Africa in Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth, from December 20-23. This will be the first time that Indian women will play more than two Tests in a year or even season since 1986.
The talkdown of Ireland got its own whipping. The clamour for the Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s debut was met with a T20 wipe out by England. We are now being force fed their RoKo, Cheeku Bhaiya and faux aggro promos featuring movie stars and random comic man in hat. It is all a bit high-on-their-own-supply material, but which today has become par for the course in Indian cricket TV. Moments after the Indian women won at Lord’s, TV producers quickly cut to ICC chairman Jay Shah and Sachin Tendulkar shaking hands.
