PM Modi meets Women’s ODI World Cup winning Indian team

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday met the Indian women’s cricket team following their historic ODI World Cup triumph at his official residence at Lok Kalyan Marg in New Delhi.

Modi congratulated the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side, dressed in smart formal dresses and with the winner’s medals around their neck, on their historic achievement and praised their remarkable comeback in the tournament after a string of three defeats in the league stage and the trolling they had faced on social media platforms.

The Indian team had arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday for a scheduled meeting with PM Modi, amidst tight security measures. The side ended their wait for a major ICC trophy when they defeated South Africa by 52 runs in the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup final held at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday.

Captain Harmanpreet Kaur recalled meeting Modi in 2017 when they had met him without the trophy, and now that they were meeting him with the trophy, she said the side wishes to meet him more often.

Vice-Captain Smriti Mandhana said Modi had motivated them and has been an inspiration for all of them. She also spoke about how girls are doing well in all fields today, and it is because of PM Modi’s efforts.

Player of the Tournament Deepti Sharma said she had been waiting to meet Modi and recalled their meeting in 2017 when he had asked them to keep working hard, and then they would achieve their dreams.

Harmanpreet asked Modi how he manages to always remain in the present. To this, Modi said, being so has been a part of his life and has become his habit. He also recalled the famous catch of Harleen Deol in 2021 against England, about which he had posted on social media at that time. He further discussed how Harmanpreet pocketed the ball after the final match. To this, she said she was lucky that the ball came to her, and she kept it.

Modi discussed the now-famous catch of seam-bowling all-rounder Amanjot Kaur, which she took after several fumbles. She said this is one fumble that she likes to see. Modi said: “While catching you must be seeing the ball, but after the catch, you must be seeing the trophy.”

Fast bowler Kranti Gaud mentioned how her brother is a big fan of Modi, to which he immediately gave an open invite to meet them. Modi asked the Indian team to take forward the message of Fit India, especially for girls across the country.

He also discussed the growing problem of obesity and highlighted the importance of being fit. He also asked them to go to their schools and motivate young minds there.

Pratika Rawal, who was ruled out of the knockouts due to an ankle injury in the washed-out clash against Bangladesh, was also present with the team in a wheelchair.

Modi was one of the first persons to congratulate India when they won the World Cup. “A spectacular win by the Indian team in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 Finals. Their performance in the final was marked by great skill and confidence. The team showed exceptional teamwork and tenacity throughout the tournament. Congratulations to our players. This historic win will motivate future champions to take up sports. #WomensWorldCup2025,” PM Modi had said in his social media post.

Meanwhile, Mandhana opened up on her emotions after winning a maiden World Cup trophy and reaching a significant milestone in her career. She said that losing games didn’t make her emotional but instead motivated her to improve, as she knew that a major victory would be the moment when she would get emotional, as had happened after the World Cup win.

“I have been playing international cricket for over a decade now. We have had 2017 and then 2020, a little bit of heartbreak, and then a lot of semi-final heartbreaks as well, where we thought we could go over the line. Every time that happened, it left a lot of marks within your heart.

“There is only motivation to get better and try and have ‘champions’ on our chest, but really, really happy and proud of the team. As an athlete, it feels amazing because you play cricket to win the World Cup; you dream about that as a kid. To play in front of 50-plus odd thousand people in your home city and to do it, I am just really proud of the team,” she said in a video shared by the BCCI.

Speaking of showcasing her emotions on the cricket field, Mandhana said, “I don’t have words for them. I think today is the max emotion I have had on the cricket field for sure. I always thought that it is going to happen to me. Whenever we lost a match, I saw a lot of girls crying, but it never really made me emotional because it kind of only motivated me to think, ‘How do I get better’.

“But I knew that winning is going to make me more emotional than losing, so today for sure it felt unreal. And genuinely, I mean, we won everything; it was great, but then looking at the teammates and the way the environment has been in the last 35-40 days, it just made me emotional that for this World Cup for this group of girls, I feel this is the best possible group of humans together – and something of that sort definitely makes me emotional,” she added.

Team India came close to winning the World Cup in the 2017 edition of the tournament. They beat Australia in the semi-final, courtesy of Harmanpreet Kaur’s whirlwind knock of 171 not out, and faced England in the summit clash at the iconic Lord’s. However, the hosts performed a bit better than the Mithali Raj-led side and clinched the silverware with a nine-run win.

Mandhana said that while the 2017 World Cup was a landmark moment for the women’s game in India, the 2025 victory will ‘inspire a lot of young girls to play cricket’.

“2017 was a landmark moment for women’s cricket in India and people in India understood that there is a women’s team and they play cricket as well. But this World Cup at home and in the last one and a half months, what we felt in terms of support of people wherever we played, wherever we went, and today I remember we were stepping into the bus, it was raining a little, but there were thousands of fans cheering for us and wishing us all the luck. And as a women’s cricketer for sure, to feel all of this love, and I remember when ‘Maa Tujhe Salam’ was playing at the ground, it just felt unreal. As a kid for sure, we’ve seen empty stadiums, we’ve seen all of that, but to see a fully packed stadium and then to lift the trophy in front of them, I’m sure it’s going to inspire a lot of young girls to play cricket,” Mandhana said.

Indo-Asian News Service