The International Cricket Council (ICC) hosted an event in Mumbai on 11 August, as it started the countdown to the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup.

At the event, Mayanti Langer hosted a panel comprising the captain of the women’s cricket team, Harmanpreet Kaur, along with Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues. 

Kaur, who was instrumental during the semi-final of the 2017 World Cup against Australia, scoring 171 en route India’s victory, stated how much has changed since then.

“That knock was special for me and for women's cricket. A lot of things changed in my personal life and women's cricket after that. I was off social media during the tournament so I didn’t know the amount of chatter it generated, but when we came back to India, even though we lost the final, seeing the number of people waiting for us at the airport and cheering for us was special,” she said.

Adding to this, Rodrigues, who was 16 and a half back then and representing the under-19 Mumbai team, said, “MCA (Mumbai Cricket Association) had told all the girls in the team to go and felicitate the Indian team at the airport. They expected no one to be there. We got there at 5:30 am. The team walked out of the airport thinking no one was there. But the airport was packed with media and fans. One would think that this is normal - but at that time, for women’s sport, it was not.”

Mandhana stated how women’s cricket has evolved over the last few years. 

“When I grew up, I was playing cricket with my brother and father, and that’s been the case for most of the team. The evolution of women’s cricket has been massive. I come from Sangli, and it’s not the biggest city in India. But even there, we are seeing parents getting their daughters for training camps as they want them to play for India or in the WPL.  The number of girls playing cricket now is massive. It's a lot to do with how the last eight years have panned out,” said Mandhana.

She added, “The WPL has been massive, and we are fortunate that we are part of this movement.”

Echoing Mandhana’s point about the WPL, Rodrigues said, “It has got players into the spotlight. The WPL provides youngsters with a platform to perform before joining the Indian team. So the pressure when one makes a debut for India isn’t as much because they have played through these situations before.” 

The World Cup is set to kick off on 30 September as India plays Sri Lanka in Bengaluru.