Birmingham: India has always been considered a cricket-loving nation where the cricketers in turn are given a God-like stature by the masses. Since long, men’s cricket has overshadowed not only women’s cricket but every other sport in our country.
However, the trend has been changing of late as women’s cricket has gained momentum amongst the people. In recent times, women’s cricket has caught everyone’s eyeballs across the globe owing to a string of consistent performances by the Indian ladies.
Be it the ODI World Cup in 2017 or the T20 World Cup in 2020, the Indian women reached the finals in both the events showing the world they are a force to reckon with.
The exploits on the cricket field have been coupled by the fans’ exuberance for Indian women cricketers – be it cheering for them in the stadium or rallying behind them on social media. India’s star all-rounder Harleen Deol, who will be representing the Indian side in the upcoming Commonwealth Games, as well as Mona Mesharam have been actively interacting with the fans on Koo app and are positive of India’s chances in the event.
Former India cricketers Reema Malhotra, Neha Tanwar and Nikita Bhuva have been leveraging Koo’s Multilingual Koo to interact with fans and followers in their mother tongue, thus, ensuring the people from the remotest of areas can connect with their favourite cricketers breaking the language barrier. This inclusive feature, empowering the users to express in their native language has in turn helped the game of cricket propagate amongst the masses and bring them closer to their fans.
Cricket, in general, is reaching a new pinnacle as it is all set to be a part of the Commonwealth Games for the first time since 1998 with women’s cricket entering the games for the first time (1998 edition featured men’s cricket). In the 1998 edition, South Africa beat Australia to clinch the gold medal on the back of strong performances by Shaun Pollock, Mike Rindel and Jacques Kallis.
The upcoming event will have 8 teams across two groups, with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the semi-finals. The Indian women are stacked against Australia and arch-rivals Pakistan alongwith Barbados in Group A.
The Indian team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, will look to start their campaign on a winning note against the reigning World T20 Champions Australia. The skipper, an explosive batter herself, is confident of India’s chances ahead of the games and will settle for no less than a podium finish. Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana is also excited about the games and is eager to win a medal for her country.
With the strong support of billions of Indians, the Indian women’s team will look to create history with a podium finish and bring cheers to the fans across the globe.
(IANS)
