The Women's Cricket Association of India (WCAI) was the national governing body of women's

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

in India. It was founded in 1973 at

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

, Maharashtra. It was merged into the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at Cricket centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The BCCI is the richest governing body of cricket in the world ...

(BCCI) in 2007.

Premala Chavan Premala Chavan (2 July 1918 – 8 July 2003), also known as Premalabai and Premalakaki, was an Indian politician and was a member of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The Founder-President of the All India Women's Cricket Association, she was ...

, a Member of Parliament was its first president. Its team the

India women's national cricket team The India women's national cricket team, also known as Team India or Women in Blue, represents India in women's international cricket. It is governed by Board of Control for Cricket in India India made its Test debut in 1976, against the West ...

represented India in women's international cricket. After its merger the team is governed by BCCI.

History

While women played cricket in India in significant numbers since early 1970's, there was no organization as such until the formation of WCAI by Mahendra Kumar Sharma - it was registered by him as the founder secretary in 1973 in Lucknow under the Indian Societies Act. Following the international boycott of South Africa, the

1978 Women's Cricket World Cup The 1978 Women's Cricket World Cup was an international cricket tournament played in India from 1 to 13 January 1978. Hosted by India for the first time, it was the second edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, after the inaugural 1973 World ...

was shifted to India and organized by WCAI. Nutan Gavaskar, the sister of Sunil Gavaskar, was a honorary general secretary of WCAI. Following the merger of

International Women's Cricket Council The International Women's Cricket Council was formed in February 1958 by the women's cricket associations of Australia, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa to organise international matches between the countries. In 2005 it was ...

into

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

in 2006, WCAI merged into

in 2007.

Ranee Narah Ranee Narah (born 31 October 1965) is an Indian National Congress politician from Assam, and former Rajya Sabha MP for the state between 2016-2022. She was previously a three-term Lok Sabha MP from Lakhimpur constituency, 1998-2004 and 2009-2 ...

and Shubhangi Kulkarni were the president and secretary of WCAI respectively before the merger.

References

Organisations based in Pune 1973 establishments in Maharashtra Women's cricket in India Organizations established in 1973 Cricket in Pune {{cricket-org-stub

History

See also

References