Hangzhou, China, September 21, 2023: Interest was sky-high as India made its debut in cricket at the Asian Games with the women’s team, led by Smriti Mandhana, taking on Malaysia in the quarterfinals on Thursday, September 21.
A fair-sized crowd peppered with quite a few Indian fans had made the trek to watch India’s baptism at the Asian Games at the Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng Cricket Field.
But this crowd was overshadowed by the attention back home in India – from Delhi in the North to Chennai in the South – with Sony Television telecasting the match live into living rooms across the nation of cricket-crazy fans.
“There is always sustained interest whenever India plays cricket internationally, of course, it is more for men’s cricket than women. But with this being the Asian Games, there is an added importance as winning a gold medal is high on the list of priorities,” says Aashin Prasad, an Indian journalist with Sportstar.
A live blog on his magazine has drawn hundreds of fans all keen to interact even though the match had begun at 6.30am, Indian time. Other major newspapers like the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times were also carrying live updates. This attention would have been run-of-the-mill for Mandhana and her team, but for the Malaysians, it was their moment in the sun.
Well, actually, rain. For the match began under leaden skies and it rained on India’s parade and coming out party at the Asian Games with the momentous occasion being decided on ICC rankings.
After a couple of interruptions due to the weather - and the match being reduced from a T20 to 15 overs per side - the match was officially called off with the scoreboard reading India 173 for two and in reply Malaysia one for no loss having faced two balls.
In Asia, the Indian women’s team is ranked number one, while Malaysia is 8th. As such the match was awarded to the powerhouse Indians. Malaysia could only rue that their golden opportunity to play against the best team in the region had been ruined by rain.
“This is quite bad, but it is OK because we were fighting against a very high-ranking team, right?. It was like a new experience for us,” said Malaysian batsman Ainur Ridhwan.
Cricket made its debut as a medal sport at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, and was also played in 2014 Incheon. On both occasions, Pakistan won the gold medal in the women’s competition.
“This time we will be in contention, hopefully,” smiled Indian team manager Vikas Pandit. “It’s great to be playing at the Asian Games, and our goal is gold.”
So much so that the squad includes Harmanpreet Kaur, the captain of the team across all formats, who was banned for two matches by the ICC for an outburst against Bangladesh in a one-day international last month. Kaur sat out the quarterfinal and will miss the semi-final, too. But, if India makes it to the gold medal match, she will be there for the final on September 25.
Millions of Indian fans expect that.
