Former India women’s team captain Diana Edulji has said that she had to wait for 50 long for the ‘most pleasing day’ of her life, but she has no complaints about it.
On Sunday Edulji, 69, was at the DY Patil Stadium to witness the Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian women’s team beat South Africa by 52 runs in the final to celebrate their maiden World Cup triumph.
“It was the most pleasing day of my life. I was very proud and privileged to witness this victory of our girls. I waited very long, nearly 50 years now since I started playing cricket. I have seen myself as a player, as an administrator, as an advisor now. I wanted this trophy long, long back. In 2017, I thought we would get it [when the Mithali Raj-led team lost to England in the final at Lord’s]. We just missed out. But that was the turning point, I think, for women’s cricket to be noticed. And everybody became aware of women’s cricket because of the electronic media that showed the matches live, Edulji told mid-day on Monday.
Diana Edulji. Pic/AFP
Edulji, who represented the country in 20 Tests and 34 ODIs, and led the country in the 1978 and 1993 World Cups, reckoned that the three defeats against South Africa, Australia and England at league stage, turned out to be a good wake-up call for the hosts. Edulji said: “After those three defeats, the way the team has come back and played the semi-final and the final and even before that, against New Zealand, to qualify for the semi-final, it was great. I think those three defeats really affected the team and woke them up a little bit. I’m glad and I had spoken to Harman [captain Harmanpreet Kaur] and Smriti [vice-captain Mandhana] before the NZ match. In fact, I told Smriti to please score a hundred for me and she did [scored 109 vs NZ]. And Harman also, before the final, I told her that I want to see a [World Cup-winning] star on her jersey. It’s always with the men, the World Cup stars that are there. Now, the women have it too,” remarked Edulji, who lavished praise on spin-bowling all-rounder Deepti Sharma for scoring 58 and claiming 5-39. She also praised attacking opener Shafali Verma for scoring 87 and claiming two crucial wickets.
“I’m glad that Deepti is such a utility cricketer. She totally deserved that player of the series award. And Shafali came out of the blue like a wild card entry. I have never seen her play such a innings before. She batted with discipline which she doesn’t normally do as she tends to get carried away. But here I could see the determination. She pepped up. And then of course her golden arm did the trick,” said Edulji.
Edulji, who is currently guiding Mumbai Cricket Association as an advisor, reckoned women can now take up cricket as a good career option. “I hope our domestic cricket improves. The WPL is coming up and a lot of the girls, who played this World Cup, came out from the WPL. So that should create more interest and ensure that women’s cricket can be a great career option too with more money coming in,” Edulji signed off.