FOR the first time in 25 years, a new name will be inscribed on the Women’s World Cup trophy as India and South Africa meet in Navi Mumbai today.
Not only is this symbolic of the growth and development of the game, but it is also a mouth-watering prospect, considering the seismic impact it will have for whoever is triumphant.
South Africa are cricket’s perennial ‘nearly’ team, and while their men’s team broke their duck earlier this year with a World Test Championship win, for Laura Wolvaardt’s side, it has been a tale of near misses.
The spine-tingling moment of a full Cape Town crowd singing the national anthem at the T20 World Cup final in 2023 was so emotional that it almost eclipsed their eventual defeat by Australia, but the following year’s loss to New Zealand in the final was the one that got away.
India, meanwhile, are women’s cricket’s potential game-changers.
They have also had their close calls, most significantly the nine-run defeat by England at Lord’s in 2017, and ever since there has been a lingering sense that it was only a matter of when, and not if, the team including generational talents in Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma would get their hands on a trophy.
Outside the DY Patil Stadium on Saturday, still 24 hours away from the first ball being bowled, there were crowds of people gathered outside the gates, screaming and desperate to catch a glimpse of the team training, and to scramble for last-minute tickets.
There is a record amount of prize money on offer to the winner (£3.3m), which would go a long way for South African cricket which is reaching finals in spite of its under-resourced domestic system.
For India, it is arguably less about the money and more about the shift in reach, attention and opportunity.
Regardless of the result, history beckons – but it is an India win on home soil which could signify a change in the world order.