The missing playbook for women in sport

India cheered as the women’s cricket team made history. A packed stadium roared, and millions watched late into the night as the women in blue were crowned world champions. Yet not long ago, most women played in silence. Their victory only seems sudden if we forget decades of quiet struggle and persistence. 

This victory is also a landmark moment for coach Amol Muzumdar. When he took charge in late 2023, the team was in transition—recovering from inconsistent performances and searching for identity. Muzumdar’s first move wasn’t tactical; it was cultural. He stabilised the dressing room, rebuilt trust, and gave every player clarity about her role. Then came the structural shifts: he reshuffled the batting order, prioritised fitness, and, most importantly, treated every player as a potential match-winner. The result was historic; belief, unity, victory.

But real victory is not just applause. It is the ecosystem that sustains success. True triumph comes when every girl who picks up a sport knows she isn’t alone—that a structure stands behind her. It took the BCCI years to invest meaningfully in women’s cricket, by which time India had already lost a generation of potential champions. Every few years, a medal moment jolts us into celebration. A Mirabai Chanu or a Harmanpreet Kaur breaks through, the country erupts—and then moves on.

Today, we have more women athletes than ever before, but we still coach them with playbooks written for men. That is not equality. It is laziness disguised as fairness.

Across India’s 940 certified coaches, barely 23% are women. At the Tokyo Olympics, only 13% of all coaches were female. The coaching pipeline assumes that gender neutrality equals gender equity. It doesn’t. Science shows that women athletes train, recover, and stay motivated differently. Coaching them as ‘men in smaller jerseys’ is neither effective nor ethical.

Sports physiology research suggests that women face a 2.2-fold higher risk of Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries than men. The British Journal of Sports Medicine reports that gender-specific warm-ups and neuromuscular programmes can reduce such injuries by almost 45%. Yet most training sessions for women’s teams still rely on routines built for men. Hormonal cycles, bone density, and iron deficiency also change how women respond to recovery and workload.

The psychology is just as distinct. Studies by the Women’s Sports Foundation show that girls drop out of sport at twice the rate of boys by age 14. Why? Because motivation is social, not just competitive. Girls stay when coaches build mastery, belonging, and confidence, not fear of failure. The landmark report Coaching Through a Gender Lens, based on over a thousand athlete interviews, found that girls thrive in climates of feedback, not shouting. Public criticism drives them away; encouragement keeps them in. Women respond better to collaborative, trust-based coaching.

And then, there is context. Every woman in sport plays against an invisible opponent—social expectation. From family scepticism to cultural stereotypes, her battle doesn’t end at the finish line. A good coach, therefore, doubles as negotiator, mentor, and advocate. She isn’t just refining technique; she’s defending a dream in a society still unsure about it.

The transformation can’t stop at elite academies; it has to begin everywhere. Schools must train physical-education teachers to understand how bodies and motivations evolve for different genders. Universities should embed gender-smart sports coaching modules in their curricula. And the government must catalyse this through its institutions. But this is not just policy; it is mindset.

This change cannot be left to the government alone. In fact, it is a massive entrepreneurial opportunity. Start-ups can transform the game by building AI-powered coaching dashboards that adapt to women’s physiology, wearables that predict injuries, and apps that connect athletes with certified coaches in their own languages. They can create micro-training kits for schools, virtual mentorship platforms linking rural players with professionals, and data tools that map talent and progress across districts. Sport is no longer just about competition, it is a new frontier for innovation.

With purpose, tech, and frugality on their side, entrepreneurs can create a new genre of sports-tech for women. The next big leap in women’s sport won’t just come from academies or federations. It will come from entrepreneurs who see every girl with grit as their next user, and every constraint as a chance to innovate.

(The writer is Associate Professor of Entrepreneurial Practice at Ashoka University and co-author of Leapfrog: Six Practices to Thrive)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.