In a society where women are expected to get married by 25, have
families by 28 and are expected to play second
fiddle for the rest of their lives, it is their duty to take care of their
homes even if they are working women. Especially, women in sports are frowned
upon and, despite such limitations, a middle class girl rose above all the
pressures and went on to become one of the finest ever in her trade. We
look into the inspiring journey of India’s women’s cricket superstar, Mithali
Raj.
The discovery of a star
It was the summer of
1991, the world was restless as one of the superpowers was about to crumble and
the future of the world’s economy was uncertain, there was war for oil
supremacy and the unemployment in India was at an all-time high. Far away from
the troubles of world, an 8 year old used to accompany her brother to St.
John’s academy in Secunderabad only to appease her father who wanted her to be
active. She, however didn’t have any interest in cricket and instead loved to
dance and was learning Bharatnatyam. While her brother use to practice, she
would sit near the boundary and used to casually play with the bat during the
break. Coach Joythi Prasad, who was a first class cricketer himself, noticed
her do this. Prasad was good in identifying talent and he saw something special
in the girl. This girl was none other than India’s current women’s cricket team
captain, Mithali Raj, arguably the greatest female cricketer produced by the
country and unarguably one of the greatest female athletes produced by India at
all.
After Prasad identified
the talent in Mithali he referred her to Sampath Kumar who was a hard coach and
believed in tough training. It was here with Sampath that Mithali started her
cricket journey. Initially, Mithali tried to balance cricket and Bharatnatyam
but after sometime it become evident that she had to choose one or the other.
She sacrificed her love for Bharatnatyam for her new found passion for cricket.Sampath
ensured that Mithali trained rigorously so as to be able to face the severity
of the challenges of international cricket. There were six hours of practice
sessions and apart from them Mithali used to train at school as well. At times,
the 11 year-old used to break down in tears. She would go crying to her mother
in the evening and would express regret over joining Sampath. However, now she
looks back and feels immense gratitude to him for the training which moulded
her into a tough player. Sampath trained Mithali with blinders on her and she
did not have time for much else. For him childhood didn’t mean partying with
cousins, spending summer vacations at maternal home or gallivanting; it meant
sweat and blood on the field.
The first signs of success amid tragedy
The seeds of hard work
started to bear fruits when Mithali was selected for Women’s World Cup in 1997,
after her impressive stint with the Andhra team as a 13 year-old in the
mid-90s. She was only 14 at the
time of her first national selection but the selectors were wary that she was
too young to be given a chance on such a huge platform and might never recover
if she had failed. Mithali was disappointed but she hoped that her time of
glory was close. A tragedy struck her life at this point when Sampath died in a
road accident. For a young Mithali this was a tough time but she was prepared
mentally for all contingencies by Sampath, a tough taskmaster and her dear
coach. She also had the support of her mother and her father who, unlike other parents,
were keen on her success in sports.
On the 26th June
1999, at the tender age of 16 years and 202 days (three days younger than the
God of Indian Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar when he played his first international
tournament), Mithali played her first international match against Ireland and
performed brilliantly on her debut. For the next three years, Mithali started
to secure a position in the Indian team. By 2000 she had started playing for
Railways and obtained a job as a clerk. The stint with Railways helped her hone
her skills under the guidance of players like G.S. Laxmi and Rajani Venugopal.
In 2002 she made her Test debut against England at Lucknow. A few months later,
the Indian team went on to tour England. It was here where the then 19 year-old
Mithali played one of the best innings of the women’s game and broke the record
for the highest individual score which remained hers for next couple of years.
At Taunton against
England, India were 2/45 against England’s 329 when Mithali arrived at the crease.
While the wickets continued to fall at one end, Mithali held on to her position
firmly. She mesmerized the crowd with her crisp drives which were as elegant as
Rahul Dravid, cuts which were as ferocious as Belinda Clarke, and defense as
impeccable as Sunil Gavaskar. She completed her first hundred with help of
Hemlata and took India to 6/297. She later on managed to make 157 runs in a
partnership with another star in making, Jhulan Goswami.
The moment she touched
200, everyone was sure that the iron willed girl from India was on her way to
break the record of another fantastic player Karen Rolton who made 209 only 12
months ago. Mithali established a new milestone but she wasn’t aware of the
extraordinary feat she had achieved until team management informed her. She was
declared out on the next day at 214 and though this record was overtaken two
years later by Kiran Baluch of Pakistan, those who witnessed the innings still
acknowledge it an innings of substance from a quality player who announced her
arrival in international cricket.
Captaincy and breaking new ground
In 2005, Mithali became
the captain of the national cricket team, at the same age at which Sachin
Tendulkar was handed the captaincy way back in 1996. Mithali however proved to
be a better leader.
2004-2006 was a historic
time for Indian women’s cricket. They not only won their first ever Test in
England, but they also made it to the finals of Women’s World Cup in South
Africa. Mithali played one of the finest innings of her limited-overs career
making an unbeaten 91 runs. To this date, India and the West Indies are the
only teams to have made it to the final of the Women’s World Cup, apart from
the big three – Australia, England and New Zealand. India went on to win the
Asia Cup title consecutively under the leadership of Mithali. However, as was
the tradition, the tour to England in 2008 proved to be a disaster as India
lost the 5 match series five-nil. Later that year, in the Australian summer,
they were humiliated in the same manner with a whitewash in another 5 match
series. This was the time when Mithali’s body was starting to creak after 18
years of continuous cricket and at 26, she also had the pressure of getting
married. She was continuously seeing a physiotherapist about her knee problem
and decided to retire after the World Cup in Australia. However, the World Cup
proved to be beyond the wildest expectations of both Mithali and India. India
defeated Australia to get third place and Mithali ended with 247 runs at an
average of 62. The retirement plans were chucked out of the window by the end
of the World Cup in March 2009.
Marriage plans were
postponed and Mithali cites it as the best decision of her life as she wouldn’t
have been able to achieve what she has achieved now. Moreover, she is more
independent today financially, emotionally and in every aspect. She credits her
parents for this as her father never took promotions so that she could stay in
same city and he ensured that Mithali had access to the best facilities to
play. Her mother sacrificed her successful career for the sake of her
daughter’s dreams. She strived hard to provide Mithali with the proper diet and
would be up at 3am to pack Mithali’s tiffin.
Back to her best
Mithali was back in form
,In 2010, India played only 5 One Day Internationals and Mithali made 4 fifties
in the 4 innings where she got the chance to bat. The charm in her batting had
returned. However, the huge gaps in women’s games meant that she could not get
continuous runs. As a result, in the next 16 matches, she scored a solitary
hundred along with one fifty. The 2013 World Cup
proved to be a disaster for India. While Indian women had never been a force World Cricket, they were expected to do well when given the chance of playing
at home in front of their home crowd. The team however, only made it to seventh
with Mithali failing with 29 runs at 14.5 in group stages. It was against
Pakistan that she saved India from humiliation. In this encounter, India kept
losing wickets but Mithali held one end and played a high profile innings
making a magnificent century of 103 runs, showing why she was a class apart.
A year later in 2014,
India toured England. Here they played a Test match after a hiatus of 8 years,
which, again shows the state of women’s test cricket. However, Mithali’s girls
who won their last Test in 2006 against England and repeated history this time.
They handed England a drubbing by 6 wickets and Mithali’s masterminded aided in
the tricky chase of 183 with a patient half century. Mithali turned 32 in
December 2014, however she showed no sign of aging. In fact, her game had
become even crisper and more elegant. Since 2015, she has played 19 matches and
scored 726 runs at a staggering average of 73.
Now the icon has her eye
on World Cup 2017. This is the one trophy which is missing from Mithali’s
cupboard. Mithali has started thinking about life after cricket and one can
assume that, at 34 years and after 25 years of continuous cricket it might be
time for her to hand over the reins to the next generation who have grown up
seeing her play and who cite her as their inspiration. Veda Krishnamurthy and
Harmanpreet are two such players who took up cricket thanks to Mithali.
Honoured for excellence
Mithali has been
honoured twice for her services to the game, first in 2003 when she was only 21
with the Arjuna Award for excellence in Sports by the Government of India and
subsequently in 2015 with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of
the country.
She is considered to be
the finest ever female cricketer to be produced by India and one of the finest
that the world has witnessed. Her legacy in international cricket is
praiseworthy and that she has been compared to the likes of Belinda Clarke and
Charlotte Edwards is a testament to her ability. She is the second woman to
have crossed 5000 runs after Edwards in international cricket. She has played
in all the wins that Indian women’s cricket team has registered in Test cricket
and has led them to two series wins in England, which is unparalleled even in
Indian men’s cricket.
She was the first
captain from India (man or woman) to win bilateral series in Australia in early
2016. Her record is better than many renowned male cricketers including
stalwarts such as Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and
Virat Kohli.
And still, the recognition is lacking
Despite all this, India
has never celebrated Mithali’s career like it should have. One of the major
reasons is the lack of popularity of women’s cricket despite the feats achieved
by the team. Mithali deserves a lot more recognition than she has gotten. Unlike the male
counterparts, she not only has to persevere, but she also has to swim against
the tide. One can imagine how tough her fight might have been when you consider
how she commenced her cricketing journey in the 90s, a time when women were
even more at a disadvantage in Indian society. One can also imagine how strong
her love and desire for the game is when one sees the obvious discrimination
against women’s cricket compared to men’s cricket with respect to remuneration
and rewards for winning. It is hard to be motivated in this kind of
environment, but such has been her passion for the game, that the rewards were
secondary for her. It was Mithali who motivated a generation of Indian girls
who started to believe that a career in sports is possible for women in India.
One may be disheartened
by this blatant inequality in society and sports, more specifically in cricket.But the little girl from
Hyderabad who not only practiced with boys and defeated them but also defeated
the general psychology of boys being superior through her dedication and
courage. From the tough practice sessions to the sacrifices she made and the
losses she overcame, she has done it all in order to become a top class
sportsperson and a role model for the generations to come.
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