India's Women Script History: How World Cup Glory Changes Cricket Forever

Fadnavis interacted with cricketers Smriti Mandhana, Jemima Rodrigues and Radha Yadav, who were part of the Indian team that won the Women's World Cup 2025.

During the interaction, Fadnavis said, "This is a joyous day. The women's team won the World Cup. Earlier, we used to see the World Cup going to just a few countries. But you changed everything and brought the World Cup home. You have scripted history."

India's years-long dream of capturing the ICC Women's World Cup finally become a reality after two heartbreaks in 2005 and 2017 finals, as they defeated South Africa by 52 runs in a clinical performance at the finals, which saw Shafali Verma (87 and 2/36) and Deepti Sharma (58 and 5/39) delivering all-round performances that would stay imprinted in the minds' of millions and serve as a tale of inspiration for the cricketers of the future.

The Maharashtra CM further expressed pride in India's historic ICC Women's World Cup triumph, saying it was a moment of great honour for the nation and especially for Maharashtra, which contributed key players and the team's head coach.

"It's a matter of great pride for all of us that our women's team has won the ICC Women's World Cup title... India has won it for the first time... Our team met with the Prime Minister and the President. We also wanted to invite them, but we will invite the entire team in the future. Smriti Mandana, Jemimah Rodriguez, Radha Yadav and Amol Muzumdar, the coach, are from Maharashtra, and so we decided to welcome and honour them. These girls have once again inspired Indian girls to dream, and our girls will enter the sports field on a large scale," he said while talking to the media.

"There's a government decision that when an athlete performs well at the international level, we give them approximately Rs 2.25 crore as prize money. The coach also receives Rs 25 lakh. We gave that to them today, and we also gave their other coaches a prize of Rs 11 lakh. But more than the money, the honour they have brought to the country is very important to us," he added.

After meeting Fadnavis, Jemimah told the media, "I think this win for us is going to do massive things for India. It was just the boost we needed. The pay parity coming in by BCCI, the WPL coming in - already the Women's Cricket had picked up. But now it is going to go to a whole new level...I can't wait to see what is going to happen. In India, Cricket is a religion. But what I am excited to see is fathers coming with their daughters and saying that they want their daughters to play Cricket or any dream they want to follow..."

"A lot of gratitude to the Maharashtra State Govt, especially the CM. Thank you. When you work hard and when you get rewarded for it, it feels special...I think it was our collective dream. When Sachin Tendulkar and Team India won the World Cup, his house and mine were next to each other. I saw him from my balcony, and there was a huge crowd in Bandra. His car could not even move. I was 11 years old...That time, it was a dream that I wanted to win the World Cup. I can't believe that now this dream is becoming a reality..." she added.

- ANI