WPL 2023: A Brief Look Into the History of Women's Cricket

In the final stages of the accelerated round, overseas as well as Indian players, majorly domestic players found teams as the first-ever Womens Premier League (WPL) auction came to a close at the Jio Convention Centre in Mumbai on Monday. READ MORE

West Indies captain Hayley Matthews was snapped by Mumbai Indians for INR 40 lakhs, with the side taking in South Africa all-rounder Chloe Tryon for INR 30 lakhs. England skipper Heather Knight was acquired by RCB for INR 40 lakhs, who also got South Africa’s all-rounder Dane van Niekerk for INR 30 lakhs and spinner Preeti Bose for the same amount. India wicket keeper-batter Taniyaa Bhatia was snapped by Delhi Capitals for INR 30 lakhs, while her country mate and fellow keeper Sushma Verma was roped in by Gujarat Giants for INR 60 lakhs. Gujarat then got young seam-bowling all-rounder Hurley Gala for INR 10 lakhs.

The women were seeing the occasion as the beginning of a new dawn where they would also be able be to call themselves millionaires like their male counterparts in the Indian Premier League (IPL), said a report by PTI.

For long, there had been talk about a T20 league for women in India, with several veterans like Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami and Harmanpreet Kaur, among others, waiting for this seminal moment in country’s cricketing landscape. But all that will change on March 4 this year when the inaugural match of the five-franchise tournament begins.

While it will most likely continue to be the precursor to the ‘big event’, the IPL, women cricketers will finally have a niche window, which they will be able to call their own in a milieu overcrowded with men’s T20 leagues.

Amid the anticipation, let’s take a brief look at the history of women in cricket.

Women’s cricket dates back to a report in The Reading Mercury on July 26, 1745, and a match between the villages of Bramley and Hambledon near Guildford in Surrey.

“The greatest cricket match that was played in this part of England was on Friday, the 26th of last month, on Gosden Common, near Guildford, between eleven maids of Bramley and eleven maids of Hambledon, all dressed in white. The Bramley maids had blue ribbons and the Hambledon maids red ribbons on their heads. The Bramley girls got 119 notches and the Hambledon girls 127. There was of bothe sexes the greatest number that ever was seen on such an occasion. The girls bowled, batted, ran and catches as well as most men could do in that game.”

Early matches were not for the faint of heart. According to the Lords, a match between two women’s teams from Sussex was abandoned at the artillery ground in 1747 because a big crowd of spectators crowded the pitch.

In England, there were also reported matches involving women in 1777 and 1811, with the countess of Derby and several other ‘lady of quality and fashion’ playing a match at the Oaks in Surrey. In 1811, a report from a match between Hampshire and Surrey ladies in Middlesex revealed the names of the players for the first time.

The First Women’s Cricket Club

The White Heather Club, the first women’s cricket club, was founded in Nun Appleton, Yorkshire, in 1887. In 1890, the Original English Lady Cricketers toured England, playing exhibition matches in front of big crowds. The squad was quite successful until its manager stole the profits and forced the ladies to disband, according to reports.

And in 1894, a women’s cricket league was formed in Australia, the report by Lords says. Lily Poulett-Harris, a young Tasmanian, was the founding mother of women’s cricket in Australia, captaining the Oyster Cove team in the league she established.

The Victoria Women’s Cricket Association was formed in 1905, followed by the Australian Women’s Cricket Association in 1931.

The Key Events:

• Myrtle Maclagan made the first century in a women’s test match for England against Australia in Sydney in 1935.
• The county field in Northampton hosted the first test match between England and Australia in 1937.
• Betty Wilson of Australia scores 100 and gets 11 wickets against England in 1958, becoming the first woman to achieve a century and take ten wickets in a test match. In the process, she achieved the first hat-trick in a women’s test.
• The International Women’s Cricket Council was founded in 1958.
• The inaugural women’s world cup is staged in England in 1973, thanks to the efforts of Rachael Heyhoe Flint and sir Jack Hayward. England gets the championship.
• England and Australia compete in the first women’s one-day international at Lord’s in 1976, reported the Lord.
• Australia won the second women’s world cup in 1978, which was contested in India.
• The women’s cricket organisation is dissolved in 1998, with the England and Wales Cricket Board taking over governance of the women’s game in the UK.
• When a bat is burned at Lord’s and the ashes are placed inside a wooden imitation cricket ball, the first women’s ashes trophy is made in 1998.
• Members of the MCC vote in 1998 to welcome women to the club.
• New Zealand won the women’s world cup for the first time in 2000, defeating Australia in the final by 4 runs in Lincoln.
• Kiran Baluch scores 242 for Pakistan against the West Indies in Karachi in 2004, the highest score ever in a women’s test match.
• England and New Zealand face off in the first international women’s Twenty20 match in 2004 at Hove.
• Australia won the Women’s World Cup for the fifth time in 2005, defeating India in the final by 98 runs in Centurion.
• The International Cricket Council’s Women’s Cricket Committee takes over responsibility for international women’s cricket worldwide in 2005.
• Australia won the ICC Women’s World Cup for the sixth time in 2013, defeating West Indies in the final by 114 runs in Mumbai.
• The debut season of the Women’s Cricket Super League in England took place in 2016.

Women’s Cricket in India

• Women played cricket in a variety of locations in the early 1970s, although the sport was not well organised, says a report by ESPN. Officially, women’s cricket in India began in 1973, when Mahendra Kumar Sharma, the founder secretary, formed the Women’s Cricket Association of India under the Societies Act in Lucknow, under the presidency of Begum Hamida Habibullah.
• In April 1973, the first Women’s Inter-State Nationals were held in Pune, with three teams competing: Mumbai, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh. The second tournament, held at the end of 1973 in Varanasi, had eight teams. The number had climbed to 14 by the time the third championship was held in Calcutta. Following that, all states participated. Later, Railways and Air India hired female cricketers, who competed in different teams.
• Originally, all states competed in this competition, but the system was changed such that an inter-state tournament is held in each zone, with the winners and runners-up from each zone qualifying to compete in the Nationals, the report says.
• Other tournaments were soon introduced. In 1974, Kanpur hosted the inter-zonal limited overs event known as the Rani Jhansi Trophy. The same year, an inter-university tournament was conducted at Rajkot. Sub-junior and junior competitions were organised for under-15 and under-19 players, respectively. The winners of each zone competed for the Indira Priyadarshini Trophy, while the winners of the Nationals competed for the Rau’s Cup versus the Rest of India squad.
• The executive committee was reorganised following the second National in Varanasi, with Mrs.Chandra Tripathi and Mrs.Pramilabai Chavan taking over as chairwoman and president, respectively. These two ladies, together with original secretary Mr MK Sharma, were instrumental in the early growth of women’s cricket.
• The WCAI was admitted to the International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC) in 1973 and got government recognition in 1978. Unlike England, New Zealand, and others who have amalgamated with the men’s organisation, the WCAI remains an independent entity unrelated to the BCCI.
• International women’s cricket was first played in India in 1975, when the Australian under-25 team visited for a three-match ‘Test’ series.
• When the West Indies were defeated at Patna in 1976, India won its maiden Test match in front of 25,000 spectators.
• When India played in the Centenary Celebration of New Zealand Cricket in 1995, they won a One Day Series for the first time, which was a huge morale booster for women’s cricket in the country.
• The Indian team toured England for the first time in 1999, following the merger of the Women’s Cricket Association and the English Cricket Board, and performed admirably. They won the one-day series but were drawn in the Test series.
• Shanta Rangaswamy, Diana Edulji, Shubhangi Kulkarni, and Sandhya Agarwal received the coveted Arjuna award from the Indian government in recognition of their contributions as female cricketers.
• India competed in the World Cup in 1978, 1982, 1993, and 1997. The WCAI staged the second World Cup in 1978 when it had only been in existence for five years and had no big sponsorship.
• The World Cup was staged in India for the second time in 1997, with a record 11 countries participating, the report says.

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