Sanjna Parmar on the growth of Indian women’s cricket
Earlier this month, India secured back-to-back wins in the 2025 ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup, besting South Africa in the final.
The ‘Girls in Blue’ dominated throughout the competition, winning all seven of their matches. They even commanded the final, limiting South Africa to 82 all out in the first innings. India then chased down the target comfortably, with eight overs and nine wickets to spare.
Women’s cricket in India has certainly come a very long way, thanks to a strong grassroots system developed over the past decade or so. The Sports Gazette spoke to Sanjna Parmar, a former domestic player who developed within this evolving system and witnessed first-hand its exponential growth.
A significant growth
Sanjna represented Baroda at multiple youth levels and even played for the senior women’s team during the 2010s. She now works as a coach with experience in both India and England. Reflecting on her playing career, she highlighted how women’s cricket was often overlooked:
“When I used to play back in 2013 to 2018, there was no such age groups as the under-15 and the under-17. So, all the opportunities that we had was only under-19, under-23 and seniors, that’s it.
“But now the youngsters who are getting into professional cricket, they are getting more opportunities. They have under-15, under-16, under-17, under-19 and they’re getting more matches than I used to get. So, I’m kind of jealous now.”
India and sports have a complicated relationship. Despite having the world’s largest population, India have struggled to gain global recognition in other sports beyond cricket.
This lack of success may stem from existing coaching techniques and mentality. Many grassroots-level coaches in India lack the appropriate qualifications, especially in developing sports like women’s cricket.
Sanjna, however, offered a glimmer of hope, sharing her experience:
“I had some highly qualified coaches. They really helped me with the techniques and everything. But yeah, they had a certain kind of technique they forced us to [follow], that ‘you’re not supposed to play like this or that’.
“But in recent times, I have seen that changing a lot. I would say, yeah, in the early 2000s, that was the case, but now it has completely changed.”
Media coverage
In 2022, reports revealed that women’s cricket in India received just 2% of the media coverage that men’s cricket did. Since the inception of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) in March 2023, however, this has drastically improved.
While Sanjna acknowledged the lack of media representation for women’s cricket in India, she also highlighted the progress being made:
“It’s getting better. After the WPL, I’ve seen my fellow cricketers getting sponsorship deals. They have done photoshoots and they’ve got stuff from Nike, Puma and some well-known brands. So, it’s changing definitely.”
The WPL has now become the second most valuable women’s sports league in the world, second only to the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in the United States. The league’s second season, held in February 2024, attracted a staggering 103 million viewers, with nearly 30,000 fans filling the stadium for the final in Delhi.
“I would say the media can play a huge role if women’s cricket wants to level up. The players are giving their best, they are performing well – the under-19s are the result, we can visibly see it. So, if the media is showing well, then I think that would give an advantage to women’s cricket.”
Grassroots to international stage
As previously mentioned, India has won back-to-back ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cups, the only two held so far. At the senior level, however, India has never won either the T20 World Cup or its ODI counterpart, despite reaching three semi-finals across both tournaments.
India has made great strides in women’s cricket, yet true international dominance has yet to materialise.
Tipped as strong contenders in the 2024 T20 World Cup, they failed to even progress past the group stage. While they have won seven Asia Cup titles, last year they suffered a shock defeat to Sri Lanka in the final.
A new generation is emerging, but consistency at the senior level is still lacking.
When discussing coaching in India compared to England, Sanjna highlighted:
“In India, players usually start playing on the streets. You can literally see everyone playing on every street corner.
“The players we produce, it’s kind of instinctive – they are raw talent.
“If you’re talking about England, the cricket season is limited to summer. So, they get enrolled with clubs, where they get professional help, coaches are there, and they start off really well.
“The structure is really different from India. But if we combine both of them, we can produce some really good players.”
