India's newest heroine is a comeback girl who led her cricket team to world victory. She is also a target for Hindu extremists because she wears Christianity on her sleeve.
SASHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
In India, cricket is a religion, and now Indians are celebrating the return of a child who paved the way for the country's women's team to global glory, but her own journey came at a cost. Before NPR's Diaa Hadid begins the story, she warns that it contains references to rape threats.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in non-English language).
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: YouTube is filled with fan videos of 25-year-old Jemima Rodriguez singing and getting others to sing, just like on the bus with her teammates.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: Suprita Das is a sports columnist. She says Jemima Rodriguez…
SUPRITA DAS: She is the heartbeat of the team.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: Well played.
HADID: Indian women's cricket team. Rodriguez joined when she was just 17 years old.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: But what a catch.
HADID: This is the commentator watching a teenage Rodriguez throw his body into the air to catch the ball before it crosses the boundary line against South Africa.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: And the way she jumps – oh, great.
HADID: But Rodriguez was also an inconsistent player. She was dropped from the team ahead of the 2022 Women's Cricket World Cup, one of the biggest international cricket tournaments. Then, last October, she and her family were publicly humiliated.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Indian woman cricketer Jemima Rodrigues finds herself in an unfortunate controversy.
HADID: This is India Today reporting on how Rodriguez and her family were kicked out of an elite Mumbai sports club after…
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Her father conducted religious activities on the club grounds.
HADID: Club representatives said her father rented the hall for prayer meetings more than two dozen times. He was accused of trying to convert people to Christianity. He denied these claims. Rodriguez herself is a devout Christian and her association was tainted. Amid a surge of online hate, one X user vowed to publicly rape her.
The charges reflect growing hostility towards Indian Christians, a tiny minority of 28 million in a population of 1.4 billion. One rights group reported a rise in the number of reported attacks on Christians from about 150 in 2014 to more than 800 in 2024, a decade marked by the rule of the Hindu nationalist BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Redemption came to Rodriguez in early November.
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HADID: She was sent to play for India in the semi-finals of the Women's Cricket World Cup this year. But their opponents, the Australian team, achieved a seemingly impossible advantage. So Rodriguez began to fight back, step by step.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #2: It's… oh my god.
HADID: This is FOX Sports.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #2: Jemima Rodriguez.
HADID: Until she crushed the Australians in the dust of her hometown stadium and took India to the final.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #2: This is sure to be the greatest chase in history…
HADID: During the celebration, she spoke about the suffering she and her family faced and said…
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JEMIMA RODRIGUEZ: The Bible says that mourning lasts a night, but joy comes in the morning, and today joy has come.
HADID: A few days later, India won the Women's Cricket Cup for the first time.
(Applause)
HADID: The country erupted with pure joy – firecrackers, people waving flags, squealing. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur told reporters she hoped their victory would spark a revolution where girls could pick up a bat and ball and know they could be heroes. Although girls from India's minority communities may have to contend with hostility first. Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Mumbai.
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