The 2025 team of the ICC Women's team has names coming from the humblest families, but the story of women's cricket itself bears a story of endurance and a word, "Believe." With the girls winning their maiden ICC trophy, the harsh background was exposed, courtesy of Nutan Gavaskar, the sister of former World Cup winner Sunil Gavaskar. Nutan recently had a chat with the news agency PTI where she shared that cricket was not professional to them. It was passion—the love to don the blue jersey. Unlike today, women's cricket was not under the Board of Cricket Control in India. It had a separate association named the Women's Cricket Association of India (WCAI). In 2006, BCCI acquired the team. Nutan, who was one of the earliest flagbearers of Indian Women's cricket, recalled that WCAI selected the national team till 2006. She said, "When we had WCAI, we were under the International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC) and we were straightaway told that women’s cricket wasn’t a professional sport. There was no money since we were not considered professionals." Its not that BCCI had arranged a lot of money for the Men's team pre-1983 World Cup win, but the women's team's situation was more pathetic. Nutan revealed that they not only lacked money for tickets and food, but they also had to rely on compassionate NRIs. She said, “There was one tour of New Zealand where we didn’t have funds to arrange for hotel stay for the girls. No one would believe that our team stayed at multiple homes of NRI families, who were kind enough to act as hosts." Read also: Watch: Rohit Sharma’s Curious Glance at Nita Ambani’s Phone Goes Viral During Women’s World Cup Final The arrival of Mandira Bedi In the early 2000s, the present sports broadcaster and former actress Mandira Bedi stepped in to support the women's team. Bedi shot for a famous diamond brand. Speaking about Bedi, Nutan said, "On another occasion, we had Mandira Bedi, who shot a commercial for a famous diamond brand. The entire endorsement money that she got, she gave it to the WCAI and we arranged for air tickets for India’s tour of England." Around the 2003 and 2004, Bedi reportedly convinced ASMI, a jewelry brand, to endorse the women's cricket during an ODI series against the West Indies in February 2004. The money received there was later used to buy tickets for the England tour. Read also: Watch: Indian Women’s Team Players Console South African Player After World Cup Victory Three bats per team, shared toilet, sleeping on the floor: Women endured it all The 2025 Women's team did not have a smooth transition to the semis. In the group stage, India was hanging in a tense situation after three consecutive close defeats against South Africa, Australia and England. The situation would have been worse if they had not defeated New Zealand and qualified for the final. During the defeats, there have been tons of misogynist taunts and not criticisms for choking. One of the famous taunts was the kitchen jokes, where the players were asked to stick to the kitchen. Well, the story of this women's team actually started from a much "worse" place, on the "dormitories on the floor" on their own bedding. BCCI can now afford luxuries—five-star hotels and business-class tickets. But the hustle started with unreserved coaches and shared toilets. Nutan further recalled an odd rule in the team made out of scarcity- a team having just three bats "We had the cricket kit on the back like a backpack and (a) suitcase (in) one hand. I have witnessed this in national competitions. Personal kits were costly and it would be a luxury. A team would have three bats. Two openers had two willows and No. 3 had the other bat. Once an opener was out, the No. 4 would get her bat and the leg guards." She added, "Attached toilets were a luxury. Often teams would stay in dormitories with four washrooms for 20 people and often not clean. The dal would be served from a big plastic vessel as the local association organised tournaments on a shoe-string budget." Speaking about the financial conditions, she said, "There were no match fees as the association didn’t have any money. I know the Indian team that ended runners-up in the 2005 Women’s World Cup in South Africa got the prize money but I can’t recall if they got incentives." Earlier in an interview with Lallantop, the 2005 and 2017-World Cup finalist captain Mithali Raj said that they received Rs 100 per match, which means Rs 8000 for the 8 matches they played. Currently, BCCI has announced a whopping prize money of INR 50 crore for the 2025 winners, even though it is still an issue for many "cricket fans" who find it unacceptable for a women's team to win it and not bow down.