Women's cricket at Commonwealth Games, a resounding success

The kind of traction that the Commonwealth Games women's cricket competition 2022 got was enough to show that there was an appetite among the fans to consume cricket in multinational events.

To be or not to be 

Whether cricket should be in the Olympics or not has been a raging debate for almost a decade now. The BCCI, and by extension the ICC, wasn't in favour of including cricket in the Olympics for a long time.

However, things have changed in the last few years with a willingness among the administrators to push for a spot in the Olympic games. At the moment, the Summer Olympics of 2028, scheduled to be held in Los Angeles in the United States of America, are being looked at as the target.

'Great platform'

"It means a lot for us; we've been working hard for so long," Harmanpreet said after India's semis win over England. "This is a great platform for us. Participating for the first time [in the CWG], if we can do well [in the final], a lot of things can change for us. We never thought or wondered what we are playing for and what we aren't playing for. [Gold] medal coming or not coming isn't in our hands. We just want to play well. The way we've played so far, we've learnt a lot."

"Until the last moment, we believed we could win against England, even though they had a couple of strong partnerships. Even when they were going well, no one gave up. We've been working on this for a while. If you keep doing this, results will come at some point along the way, and I'm glad it is showing now. It feels good that everyone stepped up to their responsibilities with the bat, ball and on the field. It's important that all of them remain together in such matches. In the last over, if you see, our fast fielders took the responsibility of fielding in the deep. That shows how keen you are to do well for the team."

Not the first instance

Although men's cricket featured in the Commonwealth Games once back in 1998, the Commonwealth Games Birmingham in 2022 was the first occasion that women's cricket was represented at the Games.

Australia won the final of the competition by beating India by 9 runs. Overall, the participation of cricket in the games proved to be a resounding success.