![\"India](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763334369_949_0x0.jpg\")
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India won a historic World Cup (Photo by Pankaj Nangia\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
When inspirational skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, her legend deepening with every step, sprinted across the Mumbai ground to dethrone Australia and signal a tilting of power in women\u2019s cricket. <\/p>\n
It was inevitable that the momentum from India\u2019s semi-final victory for the ages would sweep into the final against South Africa and, by the end of a momentous tournament<\/a>, Harmpanpreet lifted the trophy high into the sky in front of giddy compatriots. <\/p>\n Women\u2019s cricket, which had found it hard to penetrate cultural differences in South Asia, will never be the same again. <\/p>\n With India\u2019s heroes having become icons in their cricket mad homeland of a billion, the popularity of women\u2019s cricket will soar and there is hope the game can start to seriously develop, particularly in other rather reticent South Asian countries. <\/p>\n Fans of the women’s team celebrates (Photo by Bhushan Koyande\/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Hindustan Times via Getty Images<\/p>\n Women\u2019s cricket is also seen as the growth engine for the sport, with the incredible rise of Thailand – a country with no British roots – where investment has seen their women\u2019s team rise to 11th in the Twenty20 world rankings. <\/p>\n The development has helped cricket be included in next month\u2019s Southeast Asian Games, in several cities in Thailand, including Bangkok. <\/p>\n ForbesCricket Included In 2025 Southeast Asian GamesBy Tristan Lavalette<\/a><\/p>\n Thailand\u2019s incredible success story underlines the possibilities of the women\u2019s game, especially in non-traditional cricket countries. <\/p>\n Many countries – such as Brazil <\/a>and Germany<\/a> – have strategically looked at the women as the real growth area, where it is possible to lift up the rankings in comparison to the men\u2019s. <\/p>\n “Women\u2019s cricket is growing, it\u2019s a flagship for us,\u201dDeutscher Cricket Bund president Severin Weiss told me recently. \u201cWe have a strong pool of under-19 girls taking up cricket. I think it\u2019s fair enough to say that we are the only country behind the high performing Associates to have a dedicated girls team.\u201d<\/p>\n With genuine hope the Olympics can be in the future increased from six teams to perhaps 12, it has provided a real carrot for these smaller countries to start developing cricket – especially the women\u2019s. <\/p>\n Olympic status can unlock valuable government and corporate funding, a game-changer for the sport. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I used to tell people that cricket is the biggest sport in the world, they would respond by asking why cricket isn\u2019t in the Olympics,\u201d Cricket Brasil president Matt Featherstone said, with women\u2019s team is entirely made up of locals and enjoying professional status.<\/p>\n “The Olympic funding has been a game-changer and so the support of the Brazil Olympic Committee gives us a lot of credibility.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s some fantastic things that are coming and I think it\u2019s only going to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n Women’s cricket is developing in Brazil (Photo by CARL DE SOUZA\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n With the glow still evident in the aftermath of such a defining World Cup, the International Cricket Council has agreed to expand the tournament from eight to 10 teams. <\/p>\n A new women\u2019s emerging Nations Trophy, involving eight emerging teams, starts on November 20 with the first event being hosted by Bangkok, once again underlining Thailand\u2019s growing heft in the sport. <\/p>\n Thailand, the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, the United Arab Emirates, Scotland, Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda. <\/p>\n The governing body has reaffirmed its \u201ccommitment to the growth\u201d of women\u2019s cricket and announced significant metrics of the World Cup to underline its increasing popularity. <\/p>\n It was only just over a decade ago when the women\u2019s World Cup in India was played in front of empty grandstands, with very little media exposure. <\/p>\n \u201cNearly 300,000 fans watched the event in stadia breaking the record for tournament attendance for any women\u2019s Cricket event,\u201d the ICC said. <\/p>\n “The tournament also witnessed viewership growth and new records being set for on-screen audiences across the world with nearly 500 million viewers in India. <\/p>\n \u201cThe ICC heralded the success of ICC Women\u2019s Cricket World Cup 2025 in India as testament to its long-standing faith in the Women\u2019s game.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India won a historic World Cup (Photo by Pankaj Nangia\/Getty Images) Getty Images When inspirational skipper Harmanpreet Kaur,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-289175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}