India's Women's World Cup-winning cricketer Richa Ghoshwas provided a gold-plated bat and ball and a cheque of INR 34 lakh, which represented each run she made in the tournament, where the Women in Blue emerged victorious. Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee was also present at the coveted event, which took place at the Eden Gardens, the iconic venue in Kolkata.
From the West Bengal Government's end, Mamata handed over the coveted Banga Bhushan award and a gold chain to the Siliguri-born
player. The 22-year-old was also assigned the designation of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) within the state's law enforcement.
Former Indian captains Sourav Ganguly and Jhulan Goswami were also present at the event. While Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president Ganguly praised Richa's aggressive brand of batting, Jhulan, who fast-tracked Richa into the national setup, shared that the aim now should be to produce multiple women's cricketers like the young wicketkeeper-batter.
“Richa’s role at No.6 is difficult. She has to score rapidly in lesser number of deliveries. Her strike rate is the difference between India scoring 265 and 325,” stated Ganguly, as quoted by Sportstar.
“We should capitalise on this moment to produce many more Richas,” mentioned Jhulan.
Around about 50 young female budding cricketers also marked their attendance at the event, and were attending the event donning Richa’s No. 13 jersey. They cheered her on and were even snapped alongside the wicketkeeper-batter on stage. Richa's parents had attended the ceremony too.
Richa scored 235 runs in eight innings at a remarkable strike rate of 133.52. She hit as many as 23 fours and 12 sixes during the mega event. Her highest score of 94 came during the league phase against South Africa. She fell just six runs short in a knock in which she faced only 77 deliveries.
India won the final by defeating the same opposition in the final in Navi Mumbai on November 2. Their 52-run victory set up a historic title triumph for the team led by captain Harmanpreet Kaur. For the unversed, Richa was recently retained by Royal Challengers Bengaluru ahead of the mega auction for WPL 2026. She will be getting INR 2.75 crore from the franchise to represent them in the 2026 season.
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