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India's captain Harmanpreet Kaur, center, celebrates with teammates after winning the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup final match against South Africa in Navi Mumbai, India, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
In a landmark moment on Sunday, India beat South Africa in the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 to win their maiden title. The men’s team, on the other hand, have won their first trophy in the year 1983 and invariably comparisons have been drawn between both the results and former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar giving his take on the comparison, said the men’s team have not reached the knock out before 1983 World Cup but women have reached the finals twice (2005 and 2017).
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“There were some who tried to compare this win with the men’s team winning the World Cup in 1983. The men had never progressed beyond the group stage in earlier editions, and so everything from the knockout stage onward was new to them, while the women already had a better record, having been in two finals before this magnificent triumph,” Gavaskar wrote in Sportstar.
“Just as the ’83 win galvanised Indian cricket and gave it a voice that was heard around the world, this victory will make the countries that started women’s cricket long before India did realise that their era of domination has been shaken. The ’83 win also encouraged parents of aspiring cricketers to let their children take up the game. The IPL took it to another level, of course, and that’s why today’s Indian men’s team includes players not just from the metros but from across the country,” Gavaskar wrote.
“I would truly rate this as an even bigger and more colossal achievement than any other World Cup that we have won, because it inspires girls to play the game and consider the sport as a career option,” another former cricketer, R Ashwin, said on his YouTube channel.
Following the victory, the team shared the trophy with legends such as Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Anjum Chopra, and Reema Malhotra.
Ashwin lauded Harmanpreet and Co. for acknowledging the contribution of their predecessors after the triumph, saying the gesture stood out as the men’s team has never done something like this in the past.
“This victory of the Indian team, how do you see it? Back in 2016-17, when Harmanpreet Kaur played that incredible innings against Australia, after that came the heartbreak against England. Jhulan Goswami was part of that World Cup. Mithali Raj was part of that World Cup,” he said.
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“Even yesterday, the Indian team gave the trophy to Mithali Raj. Why did they do that? I actually take my hat off to the Indian women’s team for that. The Indian men’s team has never done something like this,” he added.
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