BCCI’s Slight To Women’s Cricket

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BCCI’s Apathy For Women’s Cricket Isn’t Just Unfair, It’s Unwise

A Google search for "Mullanpur" throws up, in the "people also ask" section, questions such as "Is Mullanpur in Chandigarh or Punjab?" and "Are Mullanpur and Mohali the same?"

There is more, but you get the point: Mullanpur Garibdass, a town in the Mohali district of Punjab, is a little speck on the map that takes some finding.

The town, with a total population of 6,165 (2011 census), boasts the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium and has been the home base to the Punjab Kings franchise since 2024.

When the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced Mullanpur — a nondescript town with a population smaller than that of a state university (16,674 students are enrolled in Punjab University, for instance) — as the venue for the final of the Women's ODI World Cup 2025 it felt, at least to me, less like a celebration and more like a carefully calibrated slight to the women's game.

The Yadavindra Singh Stadium, a 38,000-seater colossus in a region struggling with basic connectivity, now symbolises Indian women’s cricket: ambitious in theory, half-hearted in practice. While the BCCI claims this is a “rotation policy” to promote smaller venues, the decision reeks of a deeper malaise — the systemic sidelining of women’s cricket in a country obsessed with the men’s game.

A Litmus Test

Mullanpur’s selection isn’t just about geography — it is a litmus test for the BCCI’s commitment to women's cricket. The stadium, built primarily for the Punjab Kings men’s IPL franchise, lacks the infrastructure to host a global event. Unlike Mumbai’s Wankhede or Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy, Mullanpur has no metro links, limited hotels, and patchy media facilities. Contrast this with the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where 86,174 fans witnessed India’s title clash with Australia. 

The BCCI’s current logic — that marquee venues need “rest” before the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup — is laughable. A November 2025 ODI in Mumbai would leave three months to prepare for a February 2026 T20, ample time even by the board's slow-moving standards.

The subtext is clear: the BCCI believes women’s cricket isn’t worth the “wear and tear” of prime stadiums.

This is not to suggest that the BCCI is wrong in wanting to popularise women's cricket outside of the main centres, but if that is the goal, the BCCI could well have staged Women's Premier League games in such centres, rather than give short shrift to a prestigious multi-lateral event.

This could be brushed off as much ado about very little, except that the choice of venues for a prestigious women's tournament is in keeping with the short shrift the women's game has been getting from the BCCI.

Bluntly put, women's cricket in India is in limbo. While the men’s team hops continents for back-to-back series, India’s women cricketers face a famine. In 2024, they played just three Tests, six ODIs, and 12 T20Is, including the T20 World Cup. Compare this to England’s 18 ODIs and 18 T20Is or Australia’s year-round calendar of bilaterals, WBBL, and World Cups. 

The last time we saw the women in international action was during the October 2024 T20 World Cup. Then came three ODIs against Ireland at the start of this year. Their next outing is a tri-series in Sri Lanka, with South Africa as the third participant, from April 27. Then nothing, till late June when they played England in five T20s and three ODIs, as preparation for the World Cup. 

Captain Harmanpreet Kaur summed it up in 2023: “We play one series, then sit idle for months. How do you build rhythm?”

Even when the BCCI had an opportunity to host a marquee women's event — the 2024 T20 World Cup, after Bangladesh pulled out — it bailed, citing the monsoon, in a decision that further highlighted the board's skewed priorities.

The Wage Gap

For all that, the BCCI seeks to convey an illusion of equality. In 2023, BCCI secretary Jay Shah proudly declared pay parity: Women would earn the same match fees as men, he said. But as the excellent Sharda Ugra noted, this is a “statistical sleight of hand.” A male cricketer earns Rs 15 lakh per Test, Rs 6 lakh per ODI — but with 40+ matches annually, his yearly income dwarfs a woman’s Rs 3-6 lakh per game in a sparse calendar.

The BCCI’s 2023-24 budget allocation tells the same story: 58% for men’s cricket, 7% for women’s. The Women’s Premier League (WPL), while revolutionary, remains a standalone event. Its Rs 951 crore media rights windfall hasn’t trickled down to the domestic circuit. India’s Senior Women’s One-Day League had just 20 matches in 2023; Australia’s Women’s National Cricket League clocks 60+ annually.

Another indicator of how the BCCI views women's cricket is this: When Harmanpreet Kaur’s team reached the 2023 T20 World Cup final, their matches aired on niche sports channels. Men’s bilaterals, even against minnows, dominate prime time on national networks. In England, Sky Sports broadcasts 100% of women’s internationals; in India, fans still hunt for grainy YouTube streams. Invisibility stifles growth.

Such institutional neglect is par for the course. Back in 2011, Diana Eduljee, a former women's cricket star turned administrator, went up to the then BCCI president N Srinivasan, congratulated him on his recent election, and said she hoped that women's cricket in India would grow under his leadership. Srinivasan's reply was a shocker: "If I had my way, I wouldn't let women's cricket happen. Women have no business playing cricket. We are only doing this because it is an ICC rule."

Even after the team captured the public imagination in the 2017 World Cup (where Harmanpreet Kaur in the semifinal played one of the great ODI innings of all time, against Australia), the BCCI remained reluctant to cash in on the growing interest and resolutely set its face against a women's version of the IPL. It was only six years later, in 2023, that the board finally succumbed and launched the WPL -- whose instant success, marked by packed stadiums, viral moments, a haul of Rs 4670 crore from the sale of five teams, Rs 570 crore media deals — proved that the market exists. 

Yet, the league risks becoming a smokescreen. Unlike the men’s IPL, which fuels domestic talent pipelines, the WPL relies on a threadbare feeder system. Most state associations lack women’s age-group leagues; schools rarely have girls’ teams. Australia’s “Cricket Blast” program engages 30,000+ young girls annually. India has no equivalent.

As the legendary Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry said, “You can’t have a strong national team without a strong grassroots. It’s that simple.”

Mullanpur Is A Metaphor

The BCCI’s Mullanpur move isn’t just about a stadium — it is a metaphor. To salvage credibility and, more importantly, to give women's cricket the fillip it both needs and deserves, the board needs to reorient its priorities.

For starters, it could leverage WPL revenues, allocating, say, 25% of WPL profits to grassroots programs, school leagues, and updated facilities for women's cricket. 

Then, fix the calendar so that the women play 15+ ODIs and 20+ T20s annually, against the best teams. Incorporate Tests, particularly against England and Australia. (India does not play a single Test this year.)

Give the game a prime-time push. Mandate DD Sports, or Star, to broadcast women's games nationally. Visibility generates interest and gives aspiring girls heroes to look up to and something to aim for.

And in the immediate future, honor the stage. Revise the World Cup schedule, host at least the knockout games in marquee venues like the Eden Gardens or the Wankhede, where history inspires the future.

In 2017, Mithali Raj’s team lost the ODI World Cup final at Lord’s, but won 24 million Indian hearts. Seven years later, their successors are handed a World Cup in a town that Google struggles to locate. The BCCI’s apathy isn’t just unfair — it’s unwise. The question is, does the board see the women as cricketers or as collateral?

Women’s cricket isn’t a charity; it’s a goldmine of talent, fandom, and legacy waiting to be tapped.

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