A brief history of the Senior National Women's Cricket championship

The 27th National women's cricket championship got underway at Jorhat, Assam, from March 20 and will go on till March 27. Holders Indian Railways, finalists Air India, the winners and runners-up of the Five zonal leagues and hosts Assam are competing for the CricInfo Trophy.

The Women's Cricket Association of India (WCAI) was founded in 1973 at Pune with Premila Bai Chavan, Member of Parliament, as the first president. April 1973 saw two teams, Bombay and Maharastra, playing the first nationals with Maharastra, led by Ujjwala Nikkam, beating Bombay, who was captained by Nita Telang. By the end of 1973, women's cricket had spread all over India, and December 23rd, 1973 saw as many as 14 teams competing in the second Nationals at Varanasi, braving the bitter winter cold and the travails of travelling during the locomotive strike.

The Tamil Nadu Women's Cricket Association had been registered by this time and the Tamil Nadu team led by 14-year-old Good Shepherd Convent girl Sudha Shah, accompanied by founder secretary JB Shah and sports minded Shilu Ranganathan accompanied the team. The trip was made possible by the support of Indian Bank where Mr Ranganathan was incharge of development. The exploits of the Tamil Nadu Ranji team under S Venkataraghavan in reaching the final of the National Championship further inspired the young girls of Tamil Nadu to undertake this arduous journey.

The Varanasi Nationals were played on a 25 overs a side one innings knockout basis and West Bengal, led by Sri Rupa Bose, emerged winners, defeating karnataka, captained by Shantha Rangaswami in the final. The oraganizing committee was chaired by the influential Chandra Tripathi, daughter in law of Kamalapathi Tripathi and the venue of the tournament was the Sigra Stadium, where the Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram had taken on Lord Tennyson's team.

The third Nationals at Gorakhpur, UP, and the subsequent Nationals at Calcutta, Ambala, Madras, Nagpur, Jamshedpur and Varanasi were all open Nationals and West Bengal dominated the scene winning as many as seven times. The length of each innings was increased to 50 overs with no restrictions as to the number of overs per bowler.

India had started playing on the International level both at home and abroad and Bombay's left arm spinner Diana Edulji, Karnataka's charismatic all rounder Shantha Rangaswami, Shubangi Kulkarni of Pune as well as a few others there already feared for their prowess on the field both at home and abroad.

At this stage, when only the Canara Bank had come forward to give employment to women cricketers, Diana Edulji of Bombay convinced the then Minister for Railways in the Union Cabinet Madhav Rao Scindia that the Indian Railways should adopt women's cricket and provide jobs to woman cricketers, many of whom had secured good degrees. The cricket loving minister was convinced and immediately instructed the Railways Sports Control Board to advertise for women cricketers. Those who had represented their State, zones and the country were given immediate employment. This represented a sea change in the prospects of women cricketers and acted as an incentive to parents to permit their wards to devote time, energy and money to the game.

The Indian Railways team entered the Nationals from the institutional zone, the team being selected on the basis of performance at the inter-railway league. The Indian Railways team, made up largely of Indian cricketers, naturally dominated the scene and proved unbeatable for many years.

Around this time the executive committee of the WCAI decided to adopt the format then prevailing for the Ranji Trophy and restricted the Nationals to the two top teams from the zonal league and the Indian Railways as well as the host state - even if it was not a qualifier. The Combined Universities were placed in the Central Zone.

The domination of the Indian Railways at the Nationals continued until Air India, playing in the West Zone, fielded a good team. Cricketers of proven ability were employed on an annual contract to play for Air India. The renewal of the contract was dependant on performance. From the 21st Nationals to date, Air India has kept threatening the supremacy of the Indian Railways and has now given permanent employment to a few woman cricketers like Purnima Janardhan who regularly brings credit to the country at the international level. A keen contest is in the offing between the two top teams at Jorhat and will provide the nucleus of the Indian team which will play in the seventh women's World Cup.