“It’s important that people come, watch and promote women’s cricket. It’s not that bad.”

This is what Indian cricket captain Mithali Raj said after the second ODI against Australia, urging the supportive Baroda crowd to turn up in large numbers on Sunday for the final match despite losing the match. They did, as many as 15,000 strong, creating a lively atmosphere with banners, Indian flags and chants.

It was a fitting crowd as women’s cricket returned to India after a long time, the first series at home after India’s World Cup heroics eight months ago. And while India went down 0-3 in the series, that didn’t deter the crowd from cheering the team on.

“On Sunday, it was a packed house with almost 16,000 people. In fact, even before we reached the ground there were about 5,000-7,000 people already there, filling the seats at 7.30 in the morning,” India’s coach Tushar Arothe told The Field.

Even Raj admitted that she had seen such a crowd for a women’s match in more than 15 years. “The last stadium I played which was crowded was in 2003, much before BCCI came into the picture. That’s the change,” she said after the third ODI.

The World Cup final at Lord’s was a huge turning point, the catalyst for women’s cricket in India that brought it to the television screens, hoardings, and commercials.

But a large share of the credit for the overwhelmingly positive ground response to the India-Australia series goes to the Baroda Cricket Association for creating the right kind of atmosphere for the spectators. According to the BCA Secretary Snehal Parikh, they had a marketing agency handle the promotions, opened up several stands for free entry, and even provided food and water to the audience.

A question of marketing

At a time when it is difficult to fill stands for Ranji Trophy and sometimes even Test matches, BCA’s behind-the-scenes work to ensure a good audience is commendable.

“We did not keep any tickets, to generate more interest we had given passes and in every stand we gave free food. There was buffet as well as a packed lunch for everyone on the ground and enough of mineral water was provided,” Parikh told The Field.

“Nowadays with the advent of T20I cricket and all there is no crowd coming even for Test matches and they are thinking of pink ball and day/night [matches]. Women cricketers come in the last category with hardly any crowd coming in.”

He added, “We appointed a marketing agency, Aakriti Advertising, to promote the series. They had successfully handled a world record [attendance] during the marathon in Baroda, working with more than 80,000 people. We put in a lot of hoardings and social media work as well.”

During the first ODI, the marketing team created a new category of world record, getting girls and women to create an all-women human chain of over 2,400 people along the boundary rope to create awareness for breast cancer.

“The players were shocked on the first day itself looking at the crowd, because they have not played in front of so many people,” Aarothe said. “The crowd was also cheering for both teams, not just India. So the girls enjoyed it I am sure.”

The visiting Australians also had nice things to say about the crowd that chanted “Perry, Perry”, along with cheering for Harmanpret Kaur. “I have loved it here, seriously this Indian crowd is incredible,” Player of the Series Nicole Bolton said.

But BCA planned it further, treating women’s cricket as something that needed to be marketed in the right way to reach the target audience.

“We had 16 various committees with five-six members from the Baroda Cricket Association and we looked into mobilising crowds from the school.

Apart from the media stand, we had Baroda Cricket Association members stand, school stand, participant stands, sponsors stand, Reliance family members stand, BCA committee members stand and so on. That is how we bifurcated around 10-12 small areas so we could market and get the right kind of crowd,” Parikh said.

“We got fantastic support from media, Reliance authorities and police. All of them together created a very positive atmosphere in the market, the branding of the event and so on,” he added.

Branding is the operative word here. BCA treated the women’s cricket matches as a product, one that needed to be branded and marketed. In doing so, they achieved the intended returns, getting the fans to the grounds and making it a memorable experience for them.

This sort of business model approach is one that more organisations should try to promote the women’s game, but not that will find a lot of takers due to the investment involved.

Up next for Team India is a Twenty20 tri-series with Australia and England in Mumbai. With 10 am starts on weekdays and no marketing agency at work, it is unlikely that there will be the same kind of crowd in the city that is said to be the cradle of cricket in India.