EXCLUSIVE: “First score runs, everything else follows” - Anjum Chopra on WPL and women’s cricket growth

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Anjum Chopra's prescription for the future of women's cricket is blunt and refreshingly simple: let on-field performance lead, and back it with patient, structural investment. She explains the hierarchy plainly - and repeatedly - in a recent conversation.

"Sport is played on the ground. You first need to score runs on the ground."

On branding and social media, she refuses shortcuts: "If building a profile on social media gets you an India cap, I'll wait for that day to happen."

The former cricketer frames visibility as a byproduct of consistent results, not a substitute for them.

"You're a writer. First, you need to write and get your work around... irrespective of how big a profile you construct on LinkedIn and Insta or other social media handles, when you sit in front of the people and when your work is there in front of people, everything will be out there in the open," she told MyKhel.

That emphasis on steady, everyday work threads through her view of player development and national progress.

"The activity of playing and practicing is an activity that happens every day irrespective whether it's sunny or it's winter. The body only knows that it has to do one thing every day so that the result comes out hopefully one day."

She insists outcomes matter, but only as the accumulation of routine. "Outcome always matters... I was always in the present moment because my job is to score runs, take wickets, perform for the country."

What does Women's Cricket need in India?

On the WPL's role in growth, Chopra acknowledges progress while urging patience and infrastructure.

"From one or two people knowing, now more than 100 people are aware about it. This awareness has come at the back of constant performances being provided... by the Indian cricket team at a global stage."

"If we start as a nation winning more matches, doing very well, coverage is there, people are coming to the stadium and watching it... I'm sure the numbers will keep on increasing."

Leading Women's Cricket in India

Looking at leadership and selectors - and why captaincy isn't a simple checklist, the former Indian women's team captain cuts across platitudes.

"Indian captaincy or any captaincy, it is decided upon the credentials, the skill, the decision making and all those factors and they don't change."

She returns to the humble origin story of every sporting revolution - one person taking a bat, one practice at a time.

"When I set out, somebody else before me had picked up a cricket bat in the women's team. When she picked up the bat, she didn't think that Anjum will be talking about it one fine day or Harman will be lifting the World Cup one fine day. You just do the best that you can in that very moment, hoping that it comes out as a landmark moment for many others to follow later on."

Bottom line (in her own language): build the depth, play the cricket, deliver results - and the WPL, the sponsors and the social-media buzz will follow.

"This awareness has come at the back of constant performances being provided... I'm sure the numbers will keep on increasing."