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

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...

women's cricket Women's cricket is the team sport of cricket when played by woman, women. Its Laws of cricket, rules are almost identical to those in the game played by men, the main change being the use of a smaller cricket ball, ball. Women's cricket is b ...

in India. It was founded in 1973 at

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

, Uttar Pradesh. The WCAI was merged into the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the principal national governing body of the sport of cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at the Cricket Centre in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. BCCI is the wealthiest governing body ...

(BCCI) in November 2006. Its team, the

India women's national cricket team The India women's national cricket team, also known as Women in Blue, represents India in international cricket. It is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, and is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test ...

, represented India in

women's international cricket A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or Adolescence, adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functi ...

. The team is now governed by the BCCI, following the merger.

History

While women played cricket in various parts of India in the early 1970's, there was no organization governing women's cricket. The first women's cricket club in India, named The Albees, was founded in Mumbai in 1969 by Aloo Bamjee, a member of the

Cricket Club of India Cricket Club of India (CCI) is a cricket club located on Dinsha Wacha Road, in Churchgate of Mumbai, India. It was conceived as India's counterpart to the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). It is considered one of the most prestigious clubs in the na ...

. Until 1972, The Albees did not have any opponents and organised matches amongst its 60 members. In

, Mahendra Kumar Sharma began organising softball and handball tournaments for school and college girls in the city. A team organised by Sharma played at a softball tournament in Hyderabad in 1973. Following the tournament, the girls began playing cricket with the softball bats after witnessing boys playing the sport. This gave Sharma the idea to organise a cricket tournament. He personally traveled around the city in an

auto rickshaw An auto rickshaw is a motorized version of the pulled rickshaw or cycle rickshaw. Most have three wheels and do not tilt. They are known by many other terms in various countries, including three-wheeler, Adaidaita Sahu, Keke-napep, Maruwa, auto, ...

with a microphone to promote the event. Around 200 people attended the tournament held at the Queen’s Anglo Sanskrit College in Lucknow in 1973. The attendance encouraged Sharma to establish a women's cricket association. The Women's Cricket Association of India (WCAI) was registered in Lucknow in 1973 under the ''Societies Act'', with Sharma as the founder secretary. The first president of the WCAI was Hamida Habibullah. The WCAI organised the Women's Inter-State Nationals in Pune in April 1973. It was the first national-level, interstate women’s cricket competition in the country. Three teams -

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

and

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

- participated in the inaugural edition of the tournament. The Mumbai team was captained by

Diana Edulji Diana Edulji (born 26 January 1956) is an Indian former cricketer. Born in Mumbai to a Parsi family, she was drawn to sports at an early age. She grew up playing cricket with a tennis ball in the railway colony where she lived. She then went on ...

. The second edition was held in Varanasi in December 1973 and featured eight teams. Following the tournament, the executive committee of the WCAI was reorganised. Chandra Tripathi and Premala Chavan became the chairperson and president of the WCAI respectively, alongside founder secretary Sharma. The third edition of the Women's Inter-State Nationals was held in Calcutta and featured 14 teams. Subsequent editions saw participation from all states in India. The WCAI introduced new competitions in 1974. The Rani Jhansi Trophy, an inter-zonal limited overs tournament, was held at Kanpur, and an inter-university tournament was held at Rajkot. Sub-junior and junior tournaments were also introduced for under-15 and under-19 players. The WCAI was granted membership of the

International Women's Cricket Council The International Women's Cricket Council IWCC was the global governing body of Women's cricket. formed in February 1958 by the women's cricket associations of Australia, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa. In 2005 it was merg ...

(IWCC) in 1973, and was recognized by the Government of India in 1978. The first international women's cricket match in India was held on 7 February 1975 against the touring Australian under-25 team. A series of three first-class matches were played in Pune, Delhi and Calcutta. Ujwala Nikam, Sudha Shah and Shreeroopa Bose captained the Indian team in the three matches respectively. The first women's Test series in India was held in November 1976, when the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

toured the country. India played its first Test match on 31 October 1976 at the

M. Chinnaswamy Stadium The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, also known as the Karnataka State Cricket Association Stadium, is a cricket stadium in Bengaluru city of the Indian state of Karnataka. The ground is owned by the Government of Karnataka and operated by the Karnata ...

in Bangalore. India won the fourth Test in Patna on 19 November in front of 25,000 spectators, recording its first ever Test match victory. The six Test series ended in a 1–1 draw. India went on its first tour in January 1977 playing Tests against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

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. Due to the international boycott of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, 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. The WCAI made a successful bid, and served as the primary organiser, with the IWCC providing only limited oversight. Sharma was the WCAI secretary for the first five years of its existence and was responsible for organising the 1978 World Cup. Following the merger of IWCC into the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

(ICC) in 2005, the WCAI was merged into the

(BCCI) in November 2006.

Ranee Narah Ranee Narah (born Jahanara Choudhury; 31 October 1965) is an Indian politician from Assam and a member of the Indian National Congress. She represented Assam as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from 2016 to 2022. She also represented ...

and

Shubhangi Kulkarni Shubhangi Kulkarni (born 19 July 1959) is a former Indian cricketer and one of the game's most successful administrators. She received India's highest sporting honor, the Arjuna Award in 1985. She was the secretary of the Women's Cricket Associat ...

were the president and secretary of the WCAI respectively before the merger. Nutan Gavaskar, the sister of

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ born 10 July 1949), is a former captain of the Indian national cricket team who represented India national cricket team, India and Mumbai crick ...

, was an honorary general secretary of WCAI.

References

1973 establishments in Uttar Pradesh Women's cricket in India Organizations established in 1973 {{cricket-org-stub

History

See also

References