Many sports have traditionally been viewed as ‘male sports,’ and cricket is definitely one of them. However, we’re starting to see attitudes change, and rightly so. While work still needs to be done, the popularity of women’s cricket in India, in particular, is incredibly inspiring.
The 2017 World Cup played a big role
The ball started rolling when the Indian Women’s Cricket Team performed so well in the 2017 World Cup. Despite losing by nine runs to England in the final, plenty of hype was generated in the media, especially about the performance of Mithali Raj. Before the World Cup started, Raj only had 3,000 followers on Twitter. Today, she has over 930,000 followers!
Naturally, a performance like this can get the whole nation excited. We have seen it recently in the UK, with the women’s football team winning the Euros. During the World Cup, people who would never usually watch women’s cricket were checking SportsAdda live score to keep up with what has happening.
The media is getting behind women’s cricket again
Ahead of the 50-Over World Cup, Star Sports, the official broadcaster of Indian Women’s home tours and ICC events, created a campaign to get the country behind the women’s cricket team.
Known as #HamaraBlueBandhan, the campaign aimed to epitomize the spirit of the sport, bringing to life the connection that cricket fans across the country have with the Women in Blue.
The series’ first film was dedicated to the Women’s World Cup. It enabled fans to follow the journey of the women’s cricket team throughout the tournament, picking up from their heartbreaking loss in the final back in 2017.
It is great to see that the media is making more and more noise for the women’s cricket team, and this is definitely impacting the popularity of the sport in the country.
Speaking about the campaign prior to the World Cup earlier this year, the Head of Sports, Sanjog Gupta, said the following:
“We are delighted to host the Women’s World Cup across Star Sports & Disney+ Hotstar, showcasing the premier event to millions of Cricket fans across the country. The exemplary performance of the Indian team coupled with our continued efforts to popularize Women’s Cricket had seen the T20 World Cup in 2020 shatter viewership records.
“The growing popularity of women’s cricketers serves as an inspiration for everyone, but especially for young girls to enter the field of sports. The #HamaraBlueBandhan campaign seeks to bind Cricket fans together to rally behind the Indian team as it embarks on a 12-month journey of conquering world Cricket starting with the WWC 2022.”
Long may the popularity of women’s cricket in India continue
As you can see, there are a number of reasons why women’s cricket has become more popular in India. And, long may it continue! It’s great to see that female sport is not only being accepted but enjoyed and appreciated. With the media continuing to push the sport and female Indian cricketers being viewed as heroes in the eyes of young girls, we can only see women’s cricket getting more and more popular in the country.
Loves all things female cricket