Essay: For the Love of a Game- Lessons from the Women’s World Cup

Dilantha Gunawardana shares a powerful essay on the lessons we can take from the Women’s World Cup 2025.

The Indian women’s cricket team triumphed in the latest World Cup that took place in India and Sri Lanka in late 2025. A World Cup that saw the leapfrogging of Women’s Cricket into the spotlight, a far cry from 1973, when the first edition of this pinnacle event was held. In 1973, there were volunteers selling match tickets on the streets, a world away from the 2025 event, where sold-out cricket stadiums were the norm. This watershed stood as a galvanizing moment to catapult the game to where women could hold their poise and pride, on a world’s stage, where they were not only throned queens, but journey-women of a great game. Willow and leather stand as both combatants and allies, searching for a spark of glory, not solely for showmanship, but to show that a moment in the spotlight cascades into the grassroots, to empower the girl child. In simpler terms, cricket too is a viable pathway not just out of poverty but for realizing a pipe dream that was once considered farfetched, but a no-hoper no longer.