Earlier this week, the Indian women’s cricket team made history by winning its first World Cup title, nearly 50 years after the side played its first international match.

The women fought hard for their win; after a three-match losing streak in the round-robin stage, they overcame external and internal challenges to defeat then un-beaten Australia in the semi-final and a resolute South African side in the final.

The grit and determination they showed on the field are reflected in their lives off it.

Many of the players come from India’s small towns and have had humble beginnings. They come from families that had to sacrifice much to support their dreams and believed in them when no-one else did.

These are women whose careers were built playing cricket in village lanes, with second-hand bats and seam-less balls and many doubting their ambition because of their gender. Theirs is a legacy that was forged because they kept going when it would have been easier to stop.

After the historic win was secured, captain Harmanpreet Kaur sprinted towards her father, Harmandar Singh Bhullar, the moment she saw him. She leapt onto him, wrapping her arms and legs around him as he held her. A captain – and a daughter- celebrated.

Born on 8 March 1989 in Moga town – long known as the drug capital of the northern state of Punjab – Harmanpreet grew up in a family that kept its ambitions simple and its discipline firm.

Her father, a club cricketer and clerk at the district court, sold milk from the family’s four buffaloes to support the household. Cricket gear was often beyond reach.

Her first coach Yadwinder Singh Sodhi once recalled how she trained with old bats and seam-less balls because that was what was available.

Mr Bhullar ignored the neighbourhood refrain of “ladki ko khilaake kya karoge?” – what will you achieve by allowing your daughter to play cricket? He did not argue with the naysayers. He simply let his daughter – the eldest of three siblings – play.

From those open grounds in Moga to the moment she lifted the World Cup trophy at Mumbai’s DY Patil stadium, the values did not change for the Bhullars: work hard, stay grounded, keep going.

Pace-bowling all rounder Amanjot Kaur’s story begins in her father Bhupinder Singh’s carpentry workshop in Punjab. When cricket gear was unaffordable, he made her first bat himself, carved from leftover wood.

Neighbours questioned why he encouraged a girl to play. He continued working. She continued playing.

In the World Cup final, her influence came in turning points. In the 10th over, with South Africa settling, she ran out the dangerous opening batter Tazmin Brits with a clean gather and throw. Later, with opposition captain Laura Wolvaardt past a hundred and the chase still alive, Kaur steadied herself under a swirling ball at deep midwicket. She juggled it twice and held on. The stadium erupted in cheers with that catch.

The roots of that composure run deep. On her India debut in January 2023 in South Africa, she made an unbeaten 41 playing at number seven to lift India from 69 for 5. After that match, in a press conference – which I virtually attended with no other journalists present – she spoke quietly about her father’s years of sacrifice. She did not embellish. She acknowledged what had made her cricket possible.

Her catch in the final will be replayed. The hands that shaped her first bat are part of that moment too.

Left-arm spin-bowling Radha Yadav’s journey is measured in a few steps along one lane in Kandivali, a suburb in the western city of Mumbai. After earning her first BCCI contract at 19, six years ago, she bought her family a small grocery shop called the Radha Mini General Store. It stands only a few steps from the pavement stall where her father, Omprakash Yadav, sold milk and vegetables for years.

The home above the shop measured about 225 sq ft (21 sq m). Space was limited; ambition was not. Her elder sister Sonee, who also played cricket, gave up the sport so that Radha could continue playing. The family backed one dream and stayed with it.

She moved from tennis-ball cricket in narrow lanes to the highest stage of the sport because she was encouraged not to stop.

The morning after India’s World Cup win, a photograph went viral: Omprakash, smiling broadly, walking beside head coach Amol Muzumdar during the team’s lap of honour at the stadium, the World Cup trophy held aloft, on his head.

One frame held what the years had carried: street, store, family, belief.

Fast bowler Renuka Singh Thakur lost her father Kehar Singh Thakur in 1999 when she was three years old. Her mother Sunita took up a government job to support the family. Her income was modest, but her support towards her daughter’s dreams did not waver.

Thakur first played cricket in the lanes of her village and later moved to the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association’s residential academy in Dharamshala – one of the first residential facilities for women cricketers in the country.

Distance from home and the demands of training were difficult. There were moments when continuing felt unsure. Coaches who worked with her reminded her of the sacrifices her mother had made to make playing cricket possible.

That awareness kept her in the game.

At this World Cup, she led India’s new-ball attack, overcoming a prolonged injury-enforced layoff. In the final, she bowled eight overs for 28 runs. No release, no excess, no shift in discipline. A performance that shaped the match without seeking attention.

A spell built on patience, restraint and memory.

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