Diana Edulji. Shantha Rangaswamy. Sandhya Agarwal. Shubhangi Kulkarni. Neetu David.

Can you recognise them?

Names that once floated quietly in the margins of Indian sport — rarely written in headlines, never roared in stadiums. These were the women who wore India’s colours long before the world was ready to watch them.

They travelled in unreserved train compartments, stitched together their own kits, and played cricket not for fame or fortune, but for love — a stubborn, enduring love for a game that gave little back.

advertisement

Back then, there were no packed stadiums, no live broadcasts, no hashtags. The 1978 Women’s World Cup — hosted by India — unfolded quietly, almost invisibly. The men’s team hadn’t even played their first World Cup yet. But the women were already there, laying down tracks that others would one day run on.

FROM SHADOWS TO SPOTLIGHT

Forty-seven years later, those tracks led to a roaring, thunderous night at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. A sold-out sea of blue. A crowd of 50,000. Tears, fireworks, and that golden cup lifted high by Harmanpreet Kaur and her team.

India, for the first time, were world champions in women’s cricket — beating South Africa in the final on November 2.

“It’s the proudest moment of my life,” said Diana Edulji, India’s first World Cup captain from 1978, to PTI.

“Fifty years of my being on the cricket field as a player and an administrator. I’m absolutely thrilled. I wanted to see that star on the jersey — it’s finally come true.