Opinion In 2025, women’s sports came to the fore
The cricketers were not the only ones who made it a year of women's sports for India
The cricketers were not the only ones who made it a year of women's sports. From Tambalahatti village in Andhra Pradesh emerged T C Deepika, the captain of India’s T20 World Cup-winning Blind Women’s Cricket Team. She grew up in poverty, but Deepika didn’t let anything come in the way of chasing her dreams. The triumph came just weeks after the Harmanpreet Kaur-led team won its first major title by beating South Africa in the summit clash of the ICC Women’s World Cup. After near misses, the win brought silverware the team deserved after years of living in the shadow of male cricketers. The cricketers were not the only ones who made it a year of women’s sports.
Like Deepika, armless archer Sheetal Devi defied the odds to win on the world stage. Already an Asian Championship, Asian Para Games and Paralympics medalist, 18-year-old Sheetal from Kishtwar in J&K became a Para World Champion in Gwangju, South Korea. In chess, Divya Deshmukh won the Women’s Chess World Cup in Batumi in Georgia in July. Divya, 19, and the trailblazer Koneru Humpy, almost double her age, played the final. With the victory in Batumi, Divya also became a grandmaster, only the fourth woman from India to earn the prestigious title.
Shooting brought India three of its six medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the future is in good hands with Suruchi Phogat, a wrestler-turned-10m air pistol shooter, winning a hat-trick of golds at World Cups. While it’s all doom and gloom for men’s football with the Indian Super League in limbo, the women’s Under-17, Under-20 and senior teams have all qualified for the AFC Asian Cup tournaments. Antim Panghal in wrestling and Preeti Pawar in boxing raise hopes of a bright future in Olympic sports.
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