When Chennai hosted its first women's Test: 'They came to watch the cricket, not just to see if the girls could play'
On the eve of India women’s first Test in Chennai in 48 years, former players Shantha Rangaswamy, Sudha Shah and Shubhangi Kulkarni reminisce about their first Test there in 1976
Sruthi Ravindranath27-Jun-2024The north-east monsoon had just set in when India and West Indies arrived in Madras (now Chennai) in November 1976. It was the second match of the first-ever official women’s Test series in India. For the first Test, in Bangalore, the stadium was almost full. Not that it was something new for the India players: even the matches they played unofficially previously had drawn massive crowds.And the Chepauk crowd? The stadium was three-fourths full, even on days it rained. Ask Shantha Rangaswamy, the captain of that India side, and she falls back on that old chestnut: the “knowledgeable crowd”.Shubhangi Kulkarni, India’s legspinner, who finished as the highest wicket-taker in that series, faintly recollects the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association trying to bring girls from a nearby school in to watch the match.”My first impression was that the crowd knew their cricket,” Kulkarni says. “They were genuinely applauding the performance. They came to watch the cricket, unlike when we played in 1975 in various cities – the crowd [there] came to see whether the girls played in skirts or pants, you know. They [the Chennai crowd] were cheering both teams, cheering good performances.”Related
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Madras, however, would not see another women’s Test for 48 years. Since that Test, India have gone on to play 39 more, 22 of them in India – four in Lucknow, three in Mumbai, three in Delhi, and the rest in various other cities. But none in Chennai.They will be returning to Chennai for the first time since 2007, when they played an ODI Quadrangular Series there, to face South Africa in a one-off Test starting June 28.Current India head coach Amol Muzumdar acknowledges the significance of playing at the venue. “It’s a historic ground and we are aware of the history that this place carries. Even though a lot of cricket has not been played on this ground [by women’s sides], we are still aware of what the demands are, the pitch and the ground. We’ll try to cater to that in the coming days.”There’s barely any information out there about the 1976 Test played at Chepauk, barring a basic scorecard. It is evident that the match wasn’t completed; West Indies and India played an innings each. India declared at 218 for 9, Rangaswamy and Diana Edulji both top-scoring with 57.Sudha Shah, who has played the most Tests for India, was the Madras local in the squad. A regular at the stadium for long, she had her entire family cheering for her from the stands in that match. She made 18 runs, getting out to Patricia Whittaker.A newspaper reports on the first day’s play of the first official women’s Test in India, in Bengaluru”It’s a punishment to make me recollect what happened 48 years back,” she says, breaking into laughter. But it doesn’t take long to jog her memory.”I played the ball, it looped out and it ricocheted off the slip fielder’s head… the gully took the catch. Everyone was saying, ‘What luck!’ None of us top-order batters scored , if I remember.”Shah remembers correctly. India’s top three were dismissed for 15, 7 and 18. Then Rangaswamy came in.”I played to build the innings, Diana played the finisher’s job,” says Rangaswamy. “Diana went hammer and tongs. She got a quickfire 50-odd, while I had to build my innings to get my fifty.”Not only did Rangaswamy anchor the innings, she also got two wickets with the ball in the game. Remarkably, she also remembers how she got the two batters out.”Pat Whittaker was caught at slips by Sudha,” she says. “I dismissed Beverly Browne with an inswinging yorker.”The match was not telecast live but there was press coverage for the entire series. Rangaswamy remembers a description of the reception she got from the Chepauk crowd in a newspaper report, in the .”It went: ‘Her arrival was greeted with cheers as is normally given to the Nawab of Pataudi and Ajit Wadekar, the other captains of India. She got a rousing send-off after her half-century’, and things like that.”West Indies ended up playing just 29 overs in the rain-hit game, making 41 for 4. Kulkarni did not bowl in the game owing to a finger injury, but the five-for she picked up in the drawn Bangalore Test had given India the hope that spinners could be crucial in keeping West Indies quiet.”We sensed that the gap wasn’t that big and because our spinners were so good, and particularly because we were playing on our wickets, which wasn’t really suiting them, we had a positive mindset that we could go for a win,” Kulkarni says.Sudha Shah (leftmost) and Shubhangi Kulkarni (rightmost) would go on to occupy important roles in the coaching and administrative setup of women’s cricket in India•Getty ImagesThe historic first Test win came in Patna, in the fourth Test of the series. The players were floored by the fans’ reaction to the win. “Right from the ground to the hotel there were crowds and even when we went to the hotel, there were people outside,” Shah says. “So we went to the balcony to wave to them. It was a thrill at the time because we’d never come across anything like that.”With the women not getting paid to play, they were treated to food or juice by the manager after a good performance.”We never got paid, in my entire cricket career,” Rangaswamy says. “Our love for the game was more. We did it for passion, not money. But I remember in Chennai, I think both the captains – Louise [Browne] and I – got a gold chain with a pendant shaped like a ball from Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers or someone.”On Friday, Shah, who is a Chepauk regular, will be at the stadium, cheering for India from the stands. “A few of us [former team-mates] are planning on going to watch the game together,” she says.Rangaswamy, who’s currently in the US, says she’ll be watching the match on TV despite the odd timings. She watched all three ODIs India played against South Africa last week, and she’s looking forward to watching her favourite, Smriti Mandhana, and her recent favourite Shubha Satheesh, play in the Test.
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Be it cheering the opposition even when their own team loses, or turning out in massive numbers just to watch their favourite cricketer practice, you can’t talk about Chepauk without mentioning the crowd.For Radha and Parth, members of the Bucket Hat Cult, a fan group dedicated to women’s sport, it doesn’t get better than watching their favourite team play at the iconic venue for the first ever time. The group – identified by their “uniform”, the bucket hat – has been a notable presence whenever the women’s team has played in Mumbai since India’s Test against England there in 2023.Their catchy chants and songs – one of them goes, “Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to watch Deepti play all day” – even got players to notice them. “Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues wanted to meet us after the game and appreciated our support,” Parth says.Members of the Bucket Hat Cult, a group of women’s sport enthusiasts, will be at the first Women’s Test in Chennai in 48 years•Bucket Hat Cult Considering how strong the Chennai Super Kings fan base is, Radha thinks it won’t take too long for women’s cricket to pick up in the city. The TNCA has made tickets free for the match, and there are hopes a sizeable crowd will turn up, especially on the weekend.”Just look at what RCB [in the WPL] has done for the Bengaluru crowd,” she says. “From a fan’s perspective, it is pretty evident that women’s matches are just scheduled in Mumbai or neighbouring stadiums without much thought for growing the fan base across the country.”Away from the stadium, 84-year old Vijaya Subramanian, a cricket aficionado who lives in Chennai, will be cheering the women on from her home. Her father introduced her to the sport when she was around six years old and even taught her how to create a cricket scorecard. From the age of 11, she started keeping a cricket diary, in which she meticulously jotted down scores off TV or radio commentary.”She lived for a while in Kolkata, where she never missed a game – be it men’s or women’s – before moving back to Chennai,” her son, Karthik, says. “She watches all the games irrespective of the time. Her memory isn’t great right now. We remember names like Shantha Rangaswamy, Sudha Shah and Diana Edulji now because she used to talk about them so much.”Vijaya’s face lights up when she hears the players’ names. “I’m sure I heard the radio commentary for this match in Kolkata,” she says. “I remember they played well in that series. Rangaswamy used to play so consistently.”Will she be watching the one-off Test starting Friday?”,” [I’ll definitely watch] she says.