Prior to the first edition of the Women’s Premier League being conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in March 2023, veteran Indian female cricketers shared their reminiscences of the struggles they had to encounter when playing for the national team over four decades ago.
Among those quoted in The Indian Express of March 4, 2023 was the erstwhile wicketkeeper and captain of the women’s team, Diana Edulji. She commented, "We laid the platform for the game in India and to see it grow to this level is definitely something to savor.” She referred to the time when "we didn’t have money to fund our stay so unreserved (train) coaches used to be our home. At times some of us have even slept near toilets. And in case we had to switch trains, then we used the waiting room (on platforms) to get some sleep. For matches, most of our stays used to be at dormitories… accommodating 15 to 20 of us in one room.”
Top and above: Diana Edulji at the crease
On their first overseas trip "each of us had to pay Rs 10,000 to play for India. Many talented players from humble backgrounds and middle-class families missed out because they could not pay. The four of us from Maharashtra were lucky because we approached our then chief minister A. R. Antulay and the government paid for our trip…
"Today the entire team stays together. Even if a game is happening in your home town, players prefer staying in hotels. We couldn’t even think about those things because we couldn’t afford a stay in hotels. When traveling out of India, we used to stay with Indian families (two players would reside with one family)… We didn’t have anything called team bonding and stuff because we used to stay far off (from each other). We only used to meet on the morning of the match and leave once it got over. Even during the 1993 World Cup in England, all we could manage was a University stay…”