Disparities exist, discrimination exists. The handling of the Indian women’s cricket team in the last year-or-so, especially, has furthered these claims – irrespective of the now-so-familiar tweets by the players themselves supporting the BCCI or the swift refusal of people to deny any wrong-doing and bias writes Sarah Waris.

Women’s cricket, struggling for recognition and appreciation in India, continues to reel despite some stellar performances in the last four years. Reaching the semi-finals of all three ICC events, including two finals, since 2017, is no easy task, but this feat deserves special mention because the players have united to play well together despite the external mess that surrounds this branch of the game.

The rapid rise of the side in the last few years should have seen a proper structure in place but the happenings in their sport in the last year only indicate the deep chaos that seems to exist.

A year-long timeline of India Women’s troubles

It all started with a T20 World Cup final appearance at the iconic MCG in front of a packed stadium that was hyped up for days. Though the Women in Blue failed to raise their game on what was a momentous occasion, they left Australia with bigger dreams, enormous support, and never-seen-before following.

A year later, the dreams run the risk of a premature end as the Men Who Matter brush incidents under the carpet, lash out at accusations and give an impression of no displeasure among the players with farcical tweets that fail to hide the irony.

A Women’s T20 Challenge without much oomph

The Indian women players turned out in just a short four-match Women’s T20 Challenge that was played in between the IPL playoffs with the schedule coinciding with that of the WBBL. Sans high-profile names and without much advertisement from the broadcasters, the event failed to live up to its purpose, which was to increase support and give the younger players the platform to gain some experience by rubbing shoulders with the overseas stars.

Playing after a long gap away had its effects

The Indian team played international cricket earlier this year after a gap of exactly 364 days – five months after the post-pandemic resumption of women’s cricket, when the English team hosted the West Indies side. The New Zealand team toured Australia, with relatively “poorer” boards like Pakistan and Zimbabwe scheduling tours, albeit Zimbabwe played an unofficial ODI against Pakistan. South Africa hosted Pakistani for six white-ball matches, while domestic games in most countries went ahead as scheduled – the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy (England) in August, the Women’s T20 Super League (South Africa), the Super Smash (New Zealand), the Women’s Big Bash League (Australia), along with 50-over games in Australia and New Zealand.

As the men’s team created history Down Under, the women’s team were relegated to the sidelines without an update on their next fixture. When they finally took the field against South Africa in March after questionable absentees, they had to fight it out with Virat Kohli’s Men for footage, with their games coinciding with the “more-in-demand” T20I series between India and England.

Playing competitive cricket after a year meant series losses against the Proteas, which took away any chances of a larger and a bigger T20 Women’s Challenge in 2021, if reports were to be believed. Lack of game time that meant they were rusty was not accounted for, neither was the fact that a loss in a sole series should not curtail long-term development plans.

Powar to Raman to Powar again

Though a much-needed tour to England was scheduled, women’s cricket found itself in the news yet again after former coach Ramesh Powar, who had a public fall-out with Mithali Raj after the T20 World Cup in 2018, was brought in ahead of the 2022 World Cup, where he will have to work in tandem with the legendary batter as she looks to end her career on a magical note.

Though Powar’s exclusion based on the rift was understandable, what was not was the removal of WV Raman, under whom the side achieved great heights. With away ODI series wins against New Zealand and West Indies, and wins at home against England and South Africa (both in 2019) along with T20I series victories against South Africa (home) and West Indies (away) to go with a T20 World Cup final appearance, Raman was considered the best choice to lead the team in New Zealand in the 50-over World Cup next year, until the Cricket Advisory Committee thought otherwise.

What’s ahead, then?

Even before the dust settled on the controversial turn of events that saw Raman slam the “prima donna” culture in the women’s team, and Sourav Ganguly expressing disappointment over his removal, the contract system with its huge pay gap in comparison to the men’s annual contracts become a topic of discussion. As news rolled out, based on reports in the Daily Telegraph, that the Harmanpreet Kaur-led team was yet to be paid the prize reward for the T20 World Cup finals, staunch supporters refused to call it a gender issue.

How could it not be, considering the nonchalant moves and questionable strategies towards just this branch of cricket in India in the last 14 months?

As criticism piles on, the dread remains. What is the goal heading into the 2022 World Cup? Teams start preparing for the grand event almost immediately after the end of the previous edition, but a change in coach (a coach the skipper does not see eye-to-eye with) only ten months ahead of the tournament could potentially be a risk. How big a risk will it be as new equations will need to be built and past follies be forgotten? How will the side re-adjust and adapt to a new coaching method and will the past experiences have an adverse effect?

Maybe, just maybe, if the focus shifts from lining up players to hushing any criticism to the bigger prize, women’s cricket in India could well and truly see a new dawn.