Women's World Cup 2025: 'Hope that the jinx will be broken' - BCCI secretary wants India to end trophy drought

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)'s secretary Devajit Saikia recently expressed hope that India Women will break their extended curse of not winning a single Women's World Cup in the upcoming tournament. The Indians are co-hosting the upcoming eight-team tournament along with Sri Lanka for the marquee event, starting September 30.

He highlighted the Women in Blue's successful white-ball series in England across June and July earlier this year and conceded that the unit has 'come of age'. He was confident of the Harmanpreeet Kaur-led side producing a remarkable display. Saikia also spoke on the recently-concluded three-match series against Australia, pointing out that India gave Australia a good fight.

"As the matches are being held in India as well as in Sri Lanka, everybody is backing our Indian team. Recently, they have done extremely well in England also, which is a big achievement for the Indian team. (The) Indian women's cricket has come of age and I am sure they will produce a remarkable performance in the upcoming World Cup. I hope that the jinx will be broken this time," Saikia told reporters as quoted by NDTV.

"It was a very keenly-contested series, which Australia won 1-2. But India played extremely well. Australia is a very good team, but India is catching up. Till now, India has not won any ICC women's trophy, so this is a big opportunity for the team to do well," he noted.

The Women in Blue side put up a wonderful display against England while touring earlier in the year. They clinched both the T20I and ODI series with scorelines of 2-3 and 1-2, respectively. They lost to the Alyssa Healy-led outfit after the series-deciding clash was won by the touring side via a 43-run margin. 

There were a lot of positives despite the series loss. Smriti Mandhana, garnering 300 runs in three innings at an exceptional strike rate of 138.24 while also averaging a mind-boggling 100.00 was the best batter in the three-match series, whereas, Kranti Goud, for her 5 wickets at an economy rate of 5.83 in the series was the standout performer for the home team.