Unsung warrior laid foundation for today's World Cup win - Mahendra Kumar Sharma

Goosebumps and sense of pride is circulating among all Indians today. What can't a girl achieve is tagline of all social media. Ample of happiness and immense satisfying is the moment when women Indian cricket team hold that WC trophy. But it's also true that foundations should always be valued. Mahendra Kumar Sharma, the man whose vision sparks the era that is knitting glorious history. 

India won their maiden ICC title against South Africa on Sunday. 

None, perhaps, was as important as Mahendra Kumar Sharma, who from scratch and below, gave Indian women’s cricket a platform. And it all began in 1973, two years before the first men’s World Cup came into being, ten years before the men’s side actually won something on the global stage, and five years before India began featuring in the Women’s World Cup consistently

The Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI) was formed and duly registered under the Societies Act in Lucknow. That association comprised of volunteers and people whose primary interest was the development of the women’s game in India. They were not worried about what income it would generate or the financial aspect, and more often than not, those people had to pay out of their own pockets, just to ensure the sport went on the way it should. 

The formation of the WCAI and the foundation it accorded also allowed several Indian female cricketers to leave a mark on the international stage. Shantha Rangaswamy was one of the first ones to do so, and has long been established as a pioneer for the sport.

Early pioneer who dared to dream

Rangaswamy was the Indian women’s team’s first-ever captain, and represented the national team for more than a decade, distinguishing herself with her leadership and her ability as an all-rounder. And alongside Diana Edulji, who also featured during the same period and finished as the third-highest wicket taker in Women’s Tests history, India, as a country, saw what female cricketers could do against teams with better facilities and resources, and how far women’s cricket in India could go.

Then came along Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj as the 20th century ticked into the next, and the pair, apart from competing with the very best at the very top, built significantly on the platform that Edulji and Rangaswamy (among several other players), and Mahendra Kumar Sharma, through his administrative foresight, had laid.

Mahendra Kumar Sharma, and Edulji and Rangaswamy hobbled and tiptoed so Anjum, Jhulan and Mithali could walk. Anjum, Jhulan and Mithali walked so that Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma could run. And Harmanpreet, Mandhana and Deepti have now run in such a manner that the upcoming generation, which always comes at you quicker than the next set of waves, can have dreams of not just sprinting and dashing, but also of flying.

Flying like the world belongs to them. Flying like this is their time, and flying in the knowledge that even if they fall, they have the requisite support system in place to not let them crash and burn.

And for that, and for that alone, the pioneers, those who visualised what this women’s game could become, and what this women’s game should be, deserve a pedestal all their own. Because without them, there would have been no Women’s World Cup final. No packed stadiums. No dreams being realized. And most definitely no Women’s World Cup title.