N. Srinivasan apparently said he didn’t care about women’s cricket, according to a 2017 accusation made by former Indian captain Diana Edulji.
Since the Women in Blue brought honor home by winning the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2025, those comments have come up again. Notably, since the first Women’s ODI World Cup, which India didn’t even qualify for because it didn’t have a women’s team at the time, the trophy had eluded the nation for fifty-two years. However, glory has now returned home thanks to the Women in Blue.
Given that India ended their lengthy wait for a World Cup trophy by defeating South Africa by that score at the DY Patil Stadium, it seems appropriate that the number 52 appears once more, this time as the margin of victory. As they raised the trophy in the first World Cup since the illustrious pair’s retirement, the players made sure to share their victory with Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, two icons of Indian cricket in the twenty-first century.
But there is a lot more to the story of Indian women’s cricket. It is about the tenacity of players who had to fight not only against rivals on the field but also against powerful forces in the male-dominated cricket establishment that frequently did not stand by them.
It is impossible to celebrate India’s World Cup victory without taking into account this arduous and protracted path. From disdain and apathy to worldwide success, fans were reminded of the game’s progress. Edulji, who led India from 1978 to 1993, was a staunch supporter of women’s cricket throughout it all and hasn’t shied away from taking on systemic misogyny, even to this day.
Following India’s devastating defeat in the ODI World Cup final that year, Edulji stated at an Indian Express event in 2017 that “I’ve always been a BCCI basher, right from the day women’s cricket came into the BCCI fold in 2006.”
“BCCI is a chauvinist organization that is heavily male. Women were never supposed to set the rules or get involved in this. I was quite talkative from the beginning of my playing career. I would still believe that the BCCI does not yet fully acknowledge the success of women’s cricket,” she continued.
Later, the Supreme Court would name her to the BCCI’s Committee of Administrators (CoA), where she would attempt to transform the way women’s cricket was viewed and run in India from the top down. She regularly clashed with influential members of the board as part of this endeavor, including the former president of the BCCI, who she said informed her quite plainly that women’s cricket was never a top priority on his agenda.
They find it quite hard to believe that this team has performed so effectively. I would like to mention that I went to the Wankhede Stadium to congratulate Mr. Srinivasan on his election as president (after the men’s team’s 2011 World Cup victory). “If I had my way,” he declared, “I wouldn’t allow women’s cricket to take place.” “He despises women’s cricket,” Edulji remarked.
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