Bright Side Stories: How Mahendra Kumar Sharma Shaped Indian Women’s Cricket Behind the Scenes

While Team India eyes Women’s ODI World Cup glory, their journey rests on the groundwork of Mahendra Kumar Sharma, who in 1973 founded the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI), shaping the future of Indian women’s cricket.

India's women’s team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, will aim for the maiden world title in the upcoming Women’s ODI World Cup 2025. The Women in Blue’s quest for glory will begin with a group stage clash against Sri Lanka at Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati, Assam, on September 30.

Harmanpreet Kaur-led Team India is one of the favourites to win the prestigious silverware, alongside the defending champions Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and England. India are currently playing the ODI series against Australia, where they are leading 0-1, as a part of preparations for the marquee event, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka (only Pakistan matches).

For almost a decade, especially since the 2017 Women’s ODI World Cup, Team India has emerged as one of the dominant forces in women’s cricket, challenging top-ranked teams and producing world-class players who have made their mark on the international stage.

The rise of Indian women’s cricket has not only been fuelled by players’ talent but also a quiet and determined role played by Mahendra Kumar Sharma behind the scenes, which paved the way for the growth and recognition of Indian women’s cricket, laying the foundation for the international successes that the team enjoys today.

Mahendra Kumar Sharma - Man behind Indian women’s cricket

There is a famous saying, ‘Behind every successful man there is a woman,’ and in Mahendra Kumar Sharma’s case, he himself was the driving force behind the scenes to shape and uplift Indian women’s cricket. Sharma, who was in his 20s, saw a vision to organize and promote women’s cricket in India. Mahendra Kumar Sharma had a passion for sports, organizing softball and handball tournaments for school and college girls in Lucknow.

In 1973, the year when the first Women’s World Cup took place, Mahendra Kumar Sharma witnessed players playing cricket with softballs at a softball tournament in Hyderabad. His female students were interestingly watching the game, which fascinated him and sparked the idea of creating structured opportunities for women to play cricket competitively in India.

Mahendra Kumar Sharma’s passion for women’s cricket was driven by his vision to give the game structure and recognition in India. He envisioned and dreamt about women’s cricket in India when the sport was still male-dominated back in the 1970s, laying the groundwork for organized competitions.

Formation of the Women’s Cricket Association of India

Mahendra Kumar Sharma’s vision of women’s cricket in India was not restricted to just organizing local tournaments, but also aimed to promote it nationally, leading to the formation of the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI). WCAI was an independent association before it was merged with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2006.

In 1973, Sharma founded the WCAI in Lucknow, registering under the Societies Act of Lucknow. The idea of forming the association was born from watching the passion of girls playing in the weekend tournament, which was organized by Mahendra Kumar Sharma, at the Queen’s Anglo-Sanskrit College in Lucknow, with a turnout of 200 people. The association organized various competitions, including the Rani Jhansi Trophy and inter-university tournaments, and ultimately gained the membership of the International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC).

The former Indian cricketer and part of the first Indian women’s team, Shubhangi Kulkarni, recalled Kumar’s vision to take Indian women’s cricket to a global level.

“Mahendra saw that to take women’s cricket to the next level, to showcase the talent and to be noticed, we had to play internationally. His vision was very clear, and he made sure that the players got the publicity they needed,” a former WICA Secretary told The Mint in 2022.

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Mahendra Kumar Sharma’s passion for women’s cricket was very much evident from the fact that he organised the first women’s interstate, national-level tournament in Pune in April 1973, with three teams: Mumbai (then Bombay), Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh participating in the tournament.

By the time the second edition of the tournament took place in Varanasi, the number of teams had increased to six, and in the third edition, it became a 12-team competition in Calcutta.

The first Women’s World Cup in India

Mahendra Kumar Sharma’s vision of forming the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WICA) to further the growth of women’s cricket in India played a big role in bringing the first Women’s World Cup to India in 1978, providing a platform for Indian women cricketers to compete internationally and gain recognition on the global stage.

When the Government of India officially recognized WICA in 1978, the association submitted its bid to the International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC) to host the second edition of the tournament. The 1978 World Cup was supposed to be hosted by South Africa, but anti-apartheid movements resulted in the nation pulling out of the tournament, and that’s when Mahendra Kumar Sharma and WICA saw an opportunity to host the tournament.

Though WICA won the bid to host the second edition of the Women’s ODI World Cup, it was on the verge of getting cancelled after West Indies and Netherlands pulled out of the tournament, and it became a four-team contest between hosts India, Australia, England, and New Zealand. Then came into the picture the International Women’s Cricket Council, which played a pivotal role in ensuring that the World Cup took place in India.

Mahendra Kumar Sharma’s vision further got fulfilled when India successfully hosted the World Cup, and women’s cricket in the country gained recognition, structure, and opportunities for generations of players to shine.