New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon congratulated the Indian women’s cricket team on winning the 2025 Women’s World Cup last week. Speaking to ANI, PM Luxon claimed that since the White Ferns (New Zealand women’s team) couldn’t lift the title, he was backing India to win the coveted trophy, especially aftey they beat their Trans-Tasman rivals Australia in the semi-final. The 55-year-old labelled the Indian team as “world class”, adding that they “deserved to win” the World Cup.
“I watched the highlights of the game last night against South Africa… I just want to say congratulations to them. They were outstanding, truly world-class, and they deserved to win. We’re very proud of them even though we would have loved New Zealand to win…As long as someone beats Australia, that’s all we care about, and that’s what you guys do so well,” Christopher Luxon told ANI.
Playing their third World Cup final, India became only the fourth nation to lift the trophy. The Harmanpreet-led side joined Australia, England and New Zealand as ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup winners and, like the latter two, did so for the first time on home soil.
A sold-out crowd of 45,000 watched the hosts overcome South Africa in a final guaranteed to produce a new champion, with spectators captivated until the very last delivery, which came at nearly midnight local time, when captain Harmanpreet Kaur held on to a catch to dismiss Nadine de Klerk and get India’s party started.
The competition also saw a new record set for a league stage attendance at any ICC women’s event, 25,965 for India’s clash with Bangladesh. That surpassed the previous record set earlier in the tournament, when 25,166 were present to watch India take on New Zealand.
(With ANI Inputs)