It's not too long now before the champions of Women's World Cup 2025 will take home an unprecedented USD 4.48 million. Rewind to 1997, the second time the tournament was held in India, when Australia became the champions for the fourth time. When they returned home with the trophy, Lisa Keightley came back with food bills she had footed worth nearly AUD 2,500.
The 1997 World Cup existed in a world that barely intersected with the five-star hotels and top-notch facilities that international players now expect in India. The BCCI was yet to take Indian women's cricket under its wing, and the ICC was yet to take over the organisation of Women's World Cups.
Keightley, a top-order batter who was 26 at the time, had never ventured out of Australia and New Zealand when she was called-up for her maiden World Cup with the experience of just 14 ODIs.
"It was just exciting, it was new, it was hustle and bustle," Keightley says of her first India impressions, speaking to ESPNcricinfo. "It was just very different from Australia, and when we catch up with the players I played with in that '97 World Cup, some of our funniest stories and experiences are what we had on that tour."
Over the course of the tournament, Australia voyaged almost all across India, playing their league games in Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Nagpur and Lucknow.
"Our accommodation was really poor. I remember people getting sick and it was definitely a lot different than it is now," Keightley says. "I remember my first accommodation when we got off the plane. I went into my room, I went to turn the shower on, and the shower taps were cemented and they didn't move. I think the bath taps worked but the water was brown and then I went to turn on the telly and it just didn't work. And the beds had looked like they'd been there for a very long time.
"But I suppose it brings a group together. We definitely didn't let that stop us from wanting to win the World Cup and, I suppose, sticking together as a group and enjoying each other's company. I think that was a trip where you could say that drew us together."
Keightley was among the less-experienced members of the side and she sat out Australia's first two games. She was, however, among the best-prepared players, even for some of the off-field eventualities. She carried an extra bag to India stuffed only with food items from back home, but she probably hadn't accounted for her team-mates, who soon began lining up outside her room. They soon gave her a new nickname.
"I was called the Tuckshop, which in Australia is a place where you go and get sweets," she says. "So my little bag was full of sweets and lollies and chips and all the stuff that we felt we wouldn't get in India. And people used to barter with me because I had such a big array of options, they were getting sick of theirs. So they'd say, 'I'll give you a muesli bar if you give me whatever.'"
Navigating the streets of India might have been a challenge, but negotiating with her team-mates came naturally to Keightley.
"Usually, I got a lot more than what they got. So I could get two and three of theirs and it was quite harsh. And I'd just give them like a packet of chewing gum or they would choose what they wanted. And then I had the choice of saying, 'well, okay, one's not going to cut it for a packet of chewing gum. I would like two muesli bars and a packet of chips', or something like that.
"I had this caramel-coated popcorn that was very popular. And that was just so different from anything we get in India. So that went for a high price. I usually got a few good things for the popcorn."
Keightley made her maiden World Cup appearance when Australia got to Hyderabad, where they bundled Pakistan out for 27, still among the lowest totals in women's ODIs. With some spare time in hand before heading to Mumbai for their next fixture, Keightley, Mel Jones and wicketkeeper Julia Price thought it was a good time to go shopping before leaving Hyderabad. They journeyed to the old city, famous for its jewellery.
"So we had put our luggage in the hotel, jumped in tuk-tuks, went to this strip where you could buy gold. And when we went to leave, we had no idea of what our hotel name was!" Keightley laughs. "And we had to go to a police station, then they helped us find where we were staying. Then they took us home in the police car."
In Mumbai, Denmark suffered the ignominy of watching Australia amass 412 for 3, only the second ODI total that had breached the 400 mark, with captain Belinda Clark scoring a record 229* and becoming the first double-centurion in women's ODIs. Keightley played second fiddle, scoring 60 in a first-wicket stand of 168 with Clark. Denmark were rolled over for just 49, losing by a gargantuan 363 runs.
"I remember it was really hot," Keightley says. "And Belinda was one of the fittest players going around in the Australian team. So to score that many runs was amazing. I do remember there was a tree on the ground in one of the corners and the boundary came in and around the tree. Yeah, she makes my small little 60 look insignificant, doesn't she?
"We just took a picture of the scoreboard. And congratulated Belinda and took a lot of photos. And that was probably about all we did, really. I don't think we realised at the time that it was the record until the game finished. And then we thought, 'oh, we better take a picture of the scoreboard and have something to remember it by.'"
Australia were on a hot streak. They bundled England for 95 in Nagpur, hammered Netherlands by 115 runs in Lucknow, and were set to take on India in the semi-finals. All this while they sustained on "naan bread, Vegemite, and eggs." They almost left Jones and Price behind in a plane before realising they were sleeping in the last row and also survived a bomb threat on a flight before getting the all-clear with no bomb found in the luggage.
They made it to Delhi for their semi-final on Christmas Eve, and the accommodation, once again, left something to be desired.
"We lived in where they played the Delhi Open (an ATP tennis tournament), they had rooms around the tennis court," Keightley said. "And someone was cooking from the kitchen, and across the road, there was the Hyatt. I do know I came back from that tour with an expensive food bill, because we all started to get a bit sick, so we'd go and eat in the five-star hotel wherever we were.
"So I came back with a AUD 2000-2,500 food bill, but we did all take different options in food."
Keightley paid all of that out of her own pocket. She was working at the time with Cricket New South Wales, her home state, who granted her paid leave to play the World Cup.
"I was one of the lucky ones," she says. "Not everyone had that opportunity. I just went home and paid my bill and got on with life. It was just the way we did it back then. Usually, you didn't get allowances. And if you did, it was very, very small and it didn't cover too much. So usually we would finish the tour with an expensive bill."
A game in Delhi in winter usually means plenty of fog and bad light, and the semi-final was reduced to 32 overs a side.
"We ended up playing the semi-final in an army barracks where there was a ground," Keightley says of the Harbax Singh Stadium that was then the home ground of the Services team in men's domestic cricket. "And we had no crowd because of a late change in venue. And I remember it being very, very close."
India fell short by 19 runs and Australia were off to Kolkata to play the final against New Zealand at Eden Gardens, which could cradle nearly 100,000 people at the time. And there was something to celebrate off the field too.
"We loved the final because we went to a five-star hotel and were there for about seven days, for five days or so before the final," Keightley says. "And it was amazing compared to what we had been staying in. And we loved it because we had time and we went shopping and we went to the market. Obviously, we trained as well. And then it was probably the first time we got to play in one of the main stadiums in India. And the change rooms had fans and the toilets were nicer than we had.
"And when we got there, we heard that they were going to try and do a record of the most females watching cricket in a ground. So they shipped in all these schoolgirls to watch the game. And you could not hear a thing. It was so loud. And we had never experienced anything like it.
"I suppose it's very similar to the WPL when you play RCB. That's what it felt like for us. You had to yell. So, it was our first experience of, 'wow, this is what the men would experience every time they play against India and Australia.' We definitely enjoyed that."
It turned out to be a record crowd, ranging between 60,000 and 70,000, among them a 15-year-old ball girl named Jhulan Goswami. Watching the likes of Clark and speedster Cathryn Fitzpatrick kindled in Goswami the dream of taking up the sport as a profession and fast bowling as a passion.
Australia kept New Zealand to 164 and took home the trophy with a five-wicket win, along with memories, anecdotes and experiences of a lifetime. Who wanted a million dollars?