Fifty years since India's first women's Test at Bengaluru
Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of the first women's Test between India and the West Indies, which began at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on October 31, 1976. The fixture is being recalled amid a wholesale change in women's cricket over the past five decades.
In the 50 years since, India may have played only 42 Tests more, and that is an issue no doubt, but women’s cricket has changed beyond recognition, with teams across the world getting to play so many limited-overs games right through the year. There had been little money in women’s cricket till not so long ago.
Shubhangi Kulkarni was among India’s standout performers in that inaugural series, taking five for 48 in the first innings and two for 28 in the second of the Bengaluru Test. She also had a hand in the first two wickets the visiting side lost in the first essay, catching opener Gloria Gill at slip off the bowling of left-arm spinner Sharmila Chakraborty and playing a part in the run out of Louise Browne.
“It was a dream beginning to my Test career, and a day I will always cherish,” Shubhangi told The Hindu. “Before the series, we had attended a coaching camp conducted by Lala Amarnath. I had learnt a few new tricks from him and from my coach, Kamal Bhandarkar, and was really looking forward to trying them out on the international stage.” Those tactics worked. The match was drawn.
The following two Tests at Chennai and New Delhi were also drawn, but India won the fourth at Patna. Shubhangi took seven wickets in India’s first-ever win in international women’s cricket. In a low-scoring match, the only fifty was scored by India’s wicketkeeper-opener Fowzieh Khalili, who made 58 in the first innings.
“What made the experience even more special was playing in front of a packed stadium,” recalls Shubhangi. “After the match, the crowd surrounded our bus and simply wouldn’t let it move!”
A photograph from the archives shows Diana Edulji trapping Gloria Gill in front of the wicket in the second Test at Chennai in 1976, underscoring the immediacy of those early contests.
It was only on Wednesday that India played Zimbabwe in an ODI at Vadodara. On the same day at Kochi the WPL’s mini auction was held, where a 15-year-old Uma Kashvi was picked up by Delhi Capitals for ₹10 lakh and G. Kamalini, three years older, was bought by Gujarat Giants for ₹40 lakh; Shubhangi watched the auction as a member of the BCCI Apex Council.