WPL 2024: Meet Meera, the jersey seller travelling across India promoting women’s cricket

Meera had shirts with Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur (India and Mumbai Indians captain) printed on them, but they got sold out during the Bengaluru leg.

Meera hailed Bengaluru for the crowd the WPL saw there and believes Delhi has not yet lived up to the standard set. | Photo Credit: Lavanya Lakshmi Narayanan

The ongoing edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) has seen fans from near and far travel to see their favourite cricketers in action. Amidst them is Meera, a widely travelled jersey seller who has taken a particular liking to the women’s vertical over the last three years.

If you’re headed to the Feroz Shah Kotla complex for a match anytime over the next nine days, you will spot Meera didi, as folks in the area call her, selling her wares in the walkway leading to the Gautam Gambhir stand.

“I have been travelling to almost all India matches I can afford to go for the last 25 years. I enjoy cricket, and travelling for games is a nice way to stay involved with the sport and the fans,” Meera told  Sportstar on the sidelines of Delhi Capitals’ game against UP Warriorz.

Her job, selling knock-off jerseys, has helped her travel the length and breadth of the country.

Meera gets around by train, and while travelling through Vishakhapatnam and Rajkot, she made it a point to watch the Indian men’s team against England. She didn’t get a train to Ranchi and hence, made her way to Bengaluru and then Delhi for the WPL.

She travels with other vendors like herself. Four of them share a guesthouse near the Arun Jaitley Stadium, where they pay a total rent of Rs.800.

RCB’s Smriti Mandhana is a popular name on the jerseys. | Photo Credit: Lavanya Lakshmi Narayanan

While Smriti Mandhana is a popular name on the jerseys, identifiers of the women playing in the tournament have largely been missing from jerseys sold outside the venue.

Meera had shirts with Smriti and Harmanpreet Kaur (India and Mumbai Indians captain) printed on them, but they got sold out during the Bengaluru leg.

“I don’t know how to read and write. Journalists have told me about the names of players and so I get them done. If I had a list of all the players participating, I would have got the whole lot printed,” she said.

Meera hailed Bengaluru for the crowd the WPL saw there and believes Delhi has not yet lived up to the standard set. “When gents can play, why can’t the ladies? If you can watch the boys, come watch the girls too,” she said.