A lot has changed in women's cricket now, says former India captain Mithali Raj

Former India Test and ODI captain Mithali Raj says women cricket has changed in the last few years and people are now more aware of the game and the players. The fan following of women's cricket has grown by leaps and bounds and Indian players are now getting recognition for the on-field exploits.

"Women's cricket has come on leaps and bounds since she made her debut in 1999. We rarely got good grounds to play on back in our day, like, at the World Cup in 2000, we played at Lincoln University, which is very different from today, where players get to play at historic grounds like Melbourne Cricket Ground or the WACA," wrote Mithali Raj in her column for the ICC in the run-up to Women's T20 World Cup.

Mithali also said how in her days, only male players were their inspiration as they were the only ones who were on television as their matches used to be telecast live. But now the scenario has changed and a young girl aspiring to play the game can have a female cricketer as her model.

Mithali recalled the time in 2002 when she broke the highest individual Test score. "People didn't know about it unless they were going out to buy the newspapers."

She added," A lot has changed since I was playing in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. The biggest difference is people are now aware of what’s going on with their national team."

Mithali also shared that in her time, there was no travel or daily allowance, nor a physio or strength and conditioning trainer to look out for fitness.

"We traveled to matches with just our head coach and manager and just didn’t have any form of cushioning," said Mithali

She also shared her views on the upcoming T20 Women's World Cup in Australia and said, "The gap between the top and bottom teams is closing. You can’t go by the practice matches alone, but it does give you a rough indication of how the tournament could play out. Take Sri Lanka beating England for example — there is a possibility that could happen again."

Mithali is also curious to see how Thailand fare against the big sides in their maiden ICC tournament and said, "This tournament will reach out to non-cricketing nations because of Thailand. They do not have a huge cricket culture there, but having a team playing at an ICC tournament will help people in Thailand become interested in the World Cup and countries who have never been into a team sport like cricket will be inspired by their journey."

"In the T20 format, you can’t really predict a winner because it all depends on how the main players perform on that particular day," stated Mithali.

India will play host Australia in the opener on February 21, 2020.