India’s remarkable Women’s Asian Cup chance boosted by cricket team across town

Perth—On a cool May evening at Perth Rectangular Stadium, India’s women’s football side walked out in makeshift kits, hastily sourced from local suppliers after the shipment sent by the All India Football Federation arrived in youth sizes. The wardrobe malfunction was only the latest indignity in a campaign that has lurched from one administrative crisis to another, yet the Blue Tigresses still produced a performance that belied both their world ranking of 63 and the chaos behind the scenes.

A stoppage-time strike from Vietnam ultimately consigned India to a 2-1 defeat in their opening Group C fixture, but the result could not obscure the symbolism of the moment: a squad drawn from a country that has never qualified for a senior FIFA World Cup—men’s or women’s—now occupies the same tournament as Japan and has three weeks to reach the quarter-finals, the minimum requirement to keep alive a dream of qualifying for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil.

Captain Sweety Devi’s appeal to Perth’s Indian diaspora was answered by several hundred fans whose drums and chants briefly turned the ground into a pocket of Mumbai. Curtin University student Sanskar Vyas, one of those who heeded the call, left the venue more convinced than ever that the scoreboard was secondary. “It was an amazing game, beautiful environment,” he said. “Indians, despite less in numbers, totally dominated the atmosphere.”

The goodwill on the terraces stands in stark contrast to the dysfunction in the boardroom. India’s qualification for this Asian Cup, sealed with a famous away victory over Thailand, unfolded while the Indian Super League was pushed back six months amid judicial scrutiny of the AIFF’s governance and a stalled commercial partnership. The men’s national team compounded the gloom by finishing bottom of its Asian Cup qualifying group despite being the highest-ranked side.

Yet even as Indian football searches for answers, another code across town is demonstrating what is possible. Perth Stadium will host the women’s Test between Australia and India beginning Friday, drawing supporters such as Radha Lath Gupta, who crossed continents to follow the cricket team’s Bucket Hatters fan group. “When you start following a women’s team you are doing it not because you have niche interests in that sport,” she explained. “But because people who look like me can do something really cool at a professional athletic level.”

The cricket team’s ODI World Cup triumph last year transformed its players into household names and commercial magnets almost overnight; football, by contrast, offers a truly global stage. Should the Blue Tigresses defy the odds and secure a maiden World Cup berth, the aftershock would be seismic.

For now, India must regroup for looming encounters with Japan and Taiwan, aware that only a top-two finish in the group offers a path to the last eight. If the opening display against Vietnam is any gauge, the players are prepared to meet the challenge head-on—whatever surprises await off the field.

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