From overlooked beginnings to a World Cup debut, Naman Agarwal writes on how Guwahati’s journey in women’s cricket mirrors the sport’s rise in India.
Three and a half hours before the start of England’s World Cup opener against South Africa in Guwahati, the media box at the Barsapara Stadium is empty. The refrigerator is filled though, stocked with an assortment of soft drinks and water bottles. A tiny lock hangs on its door, soon to be opened by the venue staff, now that the first journalist has stepped in the room.
The same can’t be said about the significantly bigger lock hanging on the door of the Assam Cricket Association office at the Nehru Stadium, just five kilometers away.
“You won’t find anyone. They (officers) never come here, maybe once in a blue moon,” says a coach who has just arrived for a district match at the venue, where the overgrown grass on the field bears a stark contrast to the sharply trimmed, colour-coded strips at Barsapara.
Before the sprawling new complex was inaugurated in 2017, Nehru Stadium was Guwahati’s gateway to international cricket. Not many recall that it marked the city’s first tryst with women’s ODIs, three decades ago, and not the spectacular opening night of the 2025 World Cup.
The long-forgotten 1995 Guwahati ODI
In 1995, the English women’s team made their first ever bilateral visit to India. The second of the five ODIs in what turned out to be an epic series of games was played in Guwahati. England, led by Karen Smithies, bowled out a Purnima Rau-led India for 85, but the hosts’ spinners ran riot on a raging turner in the second innings. Pramila Bhatt (3-9 in 8.5 overs), Sangita Dabir (3-13 in 8 overs), and Neetu David (2-14 in 9 overs) ensured that England weren’t able to get over the line, falling seven runs short.
“I remember one of my offies was probably on fourth or fifth stump outside off,” Bhatt recalled in a chat with Wisden.com. “And it knocked off the top of middle. The batter, I don’t remember who she was, was literally shocked. She’d let the ball go and it turned square and took her middle stump out.”
The batter Bhatt was referring to was either Clare Taylor or Clare Connor – Nos.10 and 11 – both clean bowled by her that day. But outside of Bhatt’s memory, little else survives. There’s no match footage, and public memory of that game, well, does not exist.
How could it? People remember what they see and experience. Unlike this World Cup at Barsapara, the 1995 Nehru Stadium ODI was masked in obscurity: far away from mesmerising opening ceremonies, record turnouts, and engaging fan zones.
Also read: World Cup 2025: Guwahati’s opening night wasn’t just for cricket - and that’s okay
“That particular pitch was under-prepared because the ball was keeping low and was turning square. But India had the best spin attack, we literally ruled the roost at that time,” Bhatt added.
For a sport operating in apathy, it’s not surprising the facilities were lacking. Compare it to today: even the district match about to begin at this very stadium has the pitch being rolled diligently, the ground staff at work for more than half an hour.
Also read: Crowd riots and Mother Teresa: The story of England Women’s first and greatest tour to India
Two years later, Guwahati came close to hosting its first Women’s World Cup match – the 1997 semi-final between India and Australia. But as noted in The Fire Burns Blue, “Australia had refused to play in that city for security reasons (the state of Assam was affected by separatist violence at the time).”
It would have to wait eight more years to host its next women’s international game.
India vs England, Guwahati: Episode 2, 2005
In 2005, England came to Guwahati again, for the third ODI of a long tour which also involved a visit to Sri Lanka. This time, the wicket at the Nehru Stadium was much better. "Yes, the pitch was flatter than we expected, certainly flatter than in previous games,” was how England’s coach at the time, Richard Bates, assessed the conditions after the game. They had lost by eight wickets defending 215.
England had started well in that match despite being down to “eight fit players” after “the majority of the squad came down with various bugs”, according to skipper Charlotte Edwards’ tour diaries. Edwards, now coaching the side at the World Cup, stitched a 102-run opening stand with Laura Newton in 24.1 overs, but Nooshin Al Khadeer’s 3-46 and tight bowling from Amita Sharma (1-30 in 10 overs) and Jhulan Goswami (0-31 in 8 overs) kept the visitors to a below-par total.
India’s top order then made short work of the chase. Karuna Jain scored 64, while Mithali Raj and Anjum Chopra, two stalwarts of Indian women’s cricket, remained unbeaten on 65 and 40 to see off the game.
It was a clinical win, and another important, if uncelebrated, chapter in Guwahati’s brief relationship with women’s cricket.
The transition from Nehru Stadium to Barsapara
The reception for this match was better than it had been a decade back. Around eight months earlier, India had enjoyed their best-ever run at a Women’s World Cup in 2005, losing to Australia in the final. Soon after, the International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC) had merged with the ICC, and plans for the merger of the Women’s Cricket Association of India with the BCCI were afoot. Plans which fructified next year, in 2006.
That was also the year construction began on the Barsapara Stadium, now at the heart of the festival women’s cricket is becoming in India.
It took six years for the venue to host its first professional game – an East Zone Senior Women's Inter-State One-Day Championship match between Assam and Odisha. The first international match there took place in 2017, a men’s T20I between India and Australia, seven years after the Nehru Stadium last hosted one.
As the city transitioned from the legacy stadium to a modern one, women’s cricket around the world and in the country grew. The 2017 Women’s World Cup sent the popularity of the sport soaring in India. In many ways, the rise of the Barsapara Stadium mirrored the ascent of the women’s game itself.
Women’s T20Is came to the venue in 2019, when England blanked India 3-0, and then arrived Indian cricket’s biggest cash-cow: the IPL. Rajasthan Royals capitalised on the impact of Riyan Parag, the first male cricketer from the state to go on to play for India, using it as their second home.
Manoj Badale, lead owner of the Royals, heaped praise on the venue when explaining why they wanted to expand: “The region that once lacked resources and facilities for cricket has seen so much growth, investing funding from the BCCI very effectively. The stadium is top quality and therefore we feel the time is right to grow our Royals' family and get the love and support from fans across the Northeast.”
Also read: Through the Siliguri Corridor: Why Riyan Parag’s debut is a significant step for Indian cricket
The first IPL game here was hosted in 2023. It brought the relatively cornered-off city to larger public consciousness, setting the stage for it to host the 2025 Women’s World Cup. That same year, the much-awaited Women’s Premier League was launched. Several lives were changed.
From obscurity to centre stage
In a recent chat with Wisden Cricket Monthly, Mithali Raj said that having the World Cup games scheduled in unconventional centers is not a compromise, rather, it’s an opportunity. “When you have the women’s game in different venues… It's an opportunity. Why not make it big through the women’s game?”
Guwahati, in many ways, has been the ideal scene-setter. Banners of all shapes and sizes adorn the city’s busiest crossings, bridges, and airport even as people mourn the loss of their beloved Zubeen da (Zubeen Garg, a singing icon from Assam who passed away two weeks ago).
At the Barsapara Stadium, which also hosts the Assam Cricket Association Academy, a group of young girls eagerly approach the entrance of the indoor nets. Having finished their own practice sessions, they are excited to catch a glimpse of the Indian team training ahead of what is going to be a grand World Cup opener against Sri Lanka.
One of them, fluent in English, speaks for the entire group when she says that the love and admiration that female cricketers get these days is what inspired them to take up the sport. She also thanks Debojit Sir (Devajit Saikiya), the BCCI secretary who hails from the city for facilitating the growth of the game in the region and providing more opportunities for young girls like her.
When asked about their favourite player, apart from the usuals, local girl Uma Chetry’s name pops up. Part of India’s World Cup squad as the backup keeper, she is the first woman from the Northeast to make it this far. In 2013, Ritu Dhrub became the first cricketer – male or female – from Assam to play for India. Her career fizzled out before people could notice. Chetry already has a sizeable fan-following.
On match day, a local coach accompanied a group of students from his club, both boys and girls, all dressed in Smriti and Harman jerseys. He and his wards are a favourite of journalists – local and travelling – looking for people to talk to outside the main gates of the stadium.
At the Nehru Stadium, the dusty stands are breaking down and the history of the two women’s ODIs played here seems to be forgotten. But on that cool November afternoon in 1995, something had begun. It would take decades of detours and disappointment, but women’s cricket was going somewhere. Guwahati was there when hardly anyone was watching. Now it has the spotlight.
Soon, the Nehru Stadium will cease to exist in its current form. The Assam government has announced plans to transform the facility to a FIFA Olympic-standard football stadium, a project estimated to cost INR 831 crore. The pitch where Bhatt, Dabir and David spun India to victory 30 years ago will be dug up and relaid, the memories of that day buried under the new turf.
It feels fitting in a way. A place that once hosted forgotten matches is being rebuilt for a future that promises not to forget. The old ground will make way for new dreams, just as the game it once hosted begins to live out its own.
The lock at the Nehru Stadium may never turn again. But in Barsapara, the door to women’s cricket has swung wide open. And this time, it’s staying that way.
