India, Oct. 30 -- The relief came first last week - that the Indian women's team had stayed alive at their home World Cup. After three straight defeats, out of which they could have at least won two if not all three against strong opposition. But what's better at a home World Cup? Acing everything in the group phase and stumbling at the final? Or scrambling through the beginning with everything coming through at the end? When India take on Australia in the semi-finals on Thursday, the relief felt after victory over New Zealand comes accompanied by nerves. Not only because India face defending and seven-time champions and the only unbeaten team in the competition. Injury has robbed the line-up of the calm and measured presence of opener Pratika Rawal. India must therefore draw on the confidence of personnel and game execution against NZ to compete fiercely. Watching the Indians in the event, regardless of their three straight defeats, felt rewarding. Because of sighting the almost-fully-prepped young talent of Kranti Gaud and N Sree Charani, Richa Ghosh's singular power and the varied trajectories taken by two remarkable 2000-borns - Jemimah Rodrigues' rise from prodigy to titan and Pratika's instant 'belonging' on the world stage. They stand on the shoulders of the still-fizzing Class of 2017 - Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma. There was another sight that marked this tournament's legacy - of women everywhere. Playing the game, running the game, enjoying the game. Female umpires, match referees, coaches, trainers, analysts, broadcasters and the crowd. Shouting, cheering, grooving. Finding their voices, minds and space. Being seen, heard, noticed. It is not a small thing, because somewhere in India, girls and boys growing through childhood and adolescence will be watching. Imprinting these visuals in their minds, framing them as the normal. This idea requires constant reinforcement because it takes very little to push it back into medieval boxes. Like the filthy social media control-freakery triggered after India's defeat to England. Or the average Indian woman's daily reality which played itself out in Indore, where a man stalked two Aussies players, groped one of them and tried to grab the other before fleeing the scene. After which a state minister described the incident as a "lesson" for the women players. This was a fresh low for the WWC2025 when comparing it to the organisational shambles that was the men's CWC2023. Still the two had several uncanny similarities. Both schedules had the hosts playing the last game of the group stage. The women against Bangladesh, the men against the Netherlands in 2023. What a fortuitous stroke of fortune. On both counts. Both Cups had equally forgettable 'anthems'. Except 2023's Dil Jashan Bole was released with a clunky video while Shreya Ghoshal's "Bring It Home" for WWC2025 is video-less. Maybe 2023's shoddiness led marketing folks to say well, 'never mind'. This Cup's music is forgotten, well before the event is over, used only for a few times at the grounds, mostly unused even in the world feed. The beautifully shot, evocative 'Will To Win' WWC2025 'campaign film', released three weeks before the first match is far better than 2023's "It Takes One Day" featuring SRK, put out 77 days before the England vs New Zealand opener. For a tournament that began on September 30, the WWC25 schedule was released on June 2 and ticket sales opened on September 4. The men's 2023 combo for its October 5 opening was June 27 and August 25. Neither timeline is a demonstration of the efficiency, equity or enthusiasm required of global sports-event hosts. In any normal sporting ecosystem, particularly for establishments dreaming of hosting the 2036 Olympics, scheduling and ticket delays and incidents like Indore are red flags. But ours is not a normal sporting ecosystem, cricket being a prime example, and sport is not the main reason we host sports events. Both 2023 and 2025 show that BCCI's disregard for fans - domestic and overseas - must now be treated as a feature, not a bug. Just like in the 2023CWC, crowds at the non-India WWC2025 matches are paltry and overseas fans minimal. Attendance at India games is better but not in much-touted 'sold out' terms. Indore, hosting its first-ever women's ODIs this month, was not near its 30,000 capacity even for India vs England due to Diwali week. But ESPNCricinfo reporter S. Sudarshanan who was at the game said that MPCA moved the spread-out spectators (about 8,500) to the middle-level stands. It upped the noise and the atmosphere, the crowd getting stuck into the Mexican waves making for energetic TV images. Full marks to the organisers for thinking on the feet. Visakhapatnam and Navi Mumbai, both venues always supportive of women's cricket, have pulled in more even if not totally full. Andhra has run one of the more robust women's cricket programmes for a decade. In 2023-24, DY Patil Stadium became India's Women's Cricket Central when crowds of more than 40,000 turned up for the India vs Australia T20I series for two matches in a row, breaking records for attendance at women's matches in India. The tournament opener in Guwahati - India vs Sri Lanka - had 22,843 spectators, the biggest for a group stage fixture at a women's ODI World Cup. Which was broken less than a month later by DY Patil for India vs New Zealand, first released as 23,180, later amended to 25,166. ICC's Instagram (with an image featuring only male spectators) called it the "highest-ever attendance for a group-stage fixture at any ICC Women's event". Strangely, what was not mentioned is that this is also the largest attendance for a 50-over WWC match, ahead of 24,000 (source: Financial Times) for the 2017 Lord's final. The largest attendance at a women's cricket match is MCG's 86,174, Australia vs India, Women's T20 World Cup 2020. There's only one other ground in the world that can beat that number, but its empty seats can only be filled with open minds. And today Indian cricket is very far from there....