missed

Bollywood must already be on the phones. Production houses racing to secure rights, writers dusting off their “sports biopic” templates, and actors quietly pitching themselves for roles as Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, or Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, etc.

Because, really, how could they resist? India’s women’s cricket team has delivered the ultimate script — courage, resilience, heartbreak, and triumph — all culminating in a glorious night at the DY Patil Stadium where they lifted the ICC Women’s World Cup.

It’s cinematic gold. And a film will be made — complete with slow-motion shots, a swelling background score, and the patriotic euphoria that Bollywood knows how to bottle perfectly.

But before the film cameras roll, it’s worth asking – where were the real cameras last night? Where were the celebrities who pack VIP boxes at men’s cricket matches, turning stadiums into red carpets? Where were the same stars who flood social media during IPL finals and national team victories?

Because this time, when the women of Indian cricket scripted the nation’s greatest sporting moment in recent years, the stands were tellingly empty of the country’s biggest names — both from Bollywood and from men’s cricket.

Only a handful stood witness: Rohit Sharma, dignified in his presence; Sachin Tendulkar, ever the statesman of sport. The rest — the legends, icons, and influencers — were missing.

Among them, perhaps most notably, the MS Dhoni. The man who gave India its 2011 World Cup glory. The symbol of calm leadership, of composure under fire. His social media congratulation was warm and timely, yes — but cheering through a post isn’t quite the same as showing up in person when history is being written.

The same applies to others — the active stars who command brands, billboards, and broadcast slots; the ones who spend hours shooting commercials about passion, teamwork, and the spirit of cricket. They show up for endorsements, for launches, for photo ops at men’s matches. But when the women brought home the world’s biggest cricketing title, they were nowhere to be seen.

And Bollywood — the same industry that will soon celebrate these women on screen — was no different. Its silence and absence from the stadium echoed a hypocrisy we’ve long normalised: we adore stories of women breaking barriers, but rarely stand beside them as they do it in real time.

This isn’t an indictment — it’s an observation of priorities. Had even a few of the men’s cricketing greats — Dhoni, Kohli, Kapil Dev — been there, it would have created an unforgettable image: the torch of cricket’s legacy being passed across generations, across gender. It would have told every girl that her victory is not a side note in India’s cricketing saga — it is the saga.

Instead, the women stood on that podium, radiant and resolute, celebrating among themselves. Perhaps that’s how it should be — maybe they no longer need validation from the same ecosystem that once overlooked them.

Still, one can’t help but think: what an example it would have set if the biggest faces of Indian cricket — and of Bollywood — had been there to applaud in person.

Presence, after all, is the truest form of respect. And last night, it was the women who turned up — not just to play, but to redefine Indian cricket forever.

As the nation now prepares for the inevitable film, perhaps the industry — both cricketing and cinematic — should pause for a moment of introspection.

Because while Bollywood will soon dramatize this story on screen, the real drama of the night lay elsewhere — in the irony that when India’s women reached the pinnacle of world cricket, the crowd that always claims to love the game, simply stayed home.