Mahendra Kumar Sharma, the man who fought for women’s cricket in India, passes away

Sharma knew the importance of time and worked hard towards forming an association to promote women’s cricket. The Women’s Cricket Association of India thus came into being in 1973.

Published : Nov 09, 2022 15:59 IST

Mahendra Kumar Sharma (standing, fourth from left), with the West Zone team at the inter-zone women’s cricket tournament in 1974. 
Mahendra Kumar Sharma (standing, fourth from left), with the West Zone team at the inter-zone women’s cricket tournament in 1974.  | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
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Mahendra Kumar Sharma (standing, fourth from left), with the West Zone team at the inter-zone women’s cricket tournament in 1974.  | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Mahendra Kumar Sharma, the man who fought for women’s cricket in India, has passed away at the age of 75 years after being unwell for a long time.

Sharma has left behind wife Vijaya and daughters Jyotsna and Taruna.

“Kanyaon ki cricket hogi, zaroor aayiye” (There will be a cricket match by girls, do come)

Thus announced Sharma on a microphone, as he moved around the streets of Lucknow in an autorickshaw one Saturday afternoon five decades ago. Those were the earliest days for women’s cricket in India.

There was no such announcement in March 2021, but an excellent crowd — notwithstanding the increase in COVID-19 cases — turned up at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium to watch India take on South Africa in the second T20I match. The women’s game has indeed a come long away.

It was a strange coincidence that big-time women’s cricket returned to the historic city fifty years after those matches were played at the rather small ground of the Queen’s Anglo Sanskrit College, which was established in 1888.

The tournament was conceived by Sharma, who wanted to form an organisation for women’s cricket in India. The weekend matches were the first trials for that.

After listening to Sharma’s publicity campaign on autorickshaw, some 200 curious people had come for the match — mainly to see if the girls played in skirts! Among those who had heard the announcement was Shubhankar Mukherjee, then a college student who used to play cricket.

He was made the scorer by Sharma. “I had to do the scoring because the scorer employed by Sharma didn’t turn up in time,” Mukherjee told  The Hindu over phone. “Those days, for the people in Lucknow, the Indian Standard Time didn’t matter much. So when the scorer was asked to come at 10 o’clock, he came in at 11.”

Establishing WCAI

Sharma, however, knew the importance of time and worked hard towards forming an association to promote women’s cricket. The Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI) thus came into being in 1973.

“But for Sharma, women’s cricket would not have taken off the way it did in India,” said Shubhangi Kulkarni former India all-rounder who was the secretary of the WCAI when it merged with the BCCI in 2006.

“He organised cricket events and also made cricketers like Diana Edulji, Shanta Rangaswamy and Sudha Shah known to the public.”

Recognition needed

Sharma is hardly remembered or acknowledged for the pioneering worked he did for women’s cricket.

“He even sold a property of his in Lucknow to promote the game,” said Mukherjee, a former Indian Railways officer who had been an assistant manager of the Indian women’s team.

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