Mithali Raj, the cricketer, who made women’s cricket a global phenomena

It’s the year 2022 and BCCI is gearing up to start a women’s IPL next year. The audience across the country is taking a keen interest in the sport, scoffing at bizarre selection choices by the BCCI selection committee and demanding to see more of the Indian women playing this beautiful sport. However, at the turn of the century, the reality was starkly different and grim. No one cared for the women version of cricket while their male counterparts were revered as some sort of demigods. But it all changed, changed when an individual named Mithali Raj took the centre stage and made the cricketing world sit back and notice.

Not many can claim to have a legacy that transcends their enviable records and exploits on the field. However, for one, Mithali Raj is not your ordinary cricketer. She fashioned an entire generation that grew up watching her play, idolized her and dreamt of playing with her.

Ask any junior player in the national team and she will tell you it was their team to share the dressing room with Mithali. Ask any budding cricketer in the streets of India and they will have the name of Mithali on their lips. A welcome change when one has grown up with only the names of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid or MS Dhoni in their memory.

Thus, there is a tinge of sadness when a player as big as Mithali announces her retirement. On Wednesday, Mithali Raj dropped a bomb and announced her decision to “retire from all forms of International Cricket”. In a message on Twitter, Mithali wrote, “I feel now is the perfect time to call curtains on my playing career as the team is in the capable hands of some very talented young players and the future of Indian Cricket is bright.”

Not announcing her future endeavours, Mithali, however, did remark that she would stay connected with the game. “Each time I stepped on the field, I gave my very best with the intent to help India win. I will always cherish the opportunity given to me to represent the tricolour,” she wrote. “It was an honour to have led the team for so many years. It definitely shaped me as a person & hopefully helped shape Indian Women’s Cricket as well.

A cricketer that paved the way for millions of young girls

Having played 12 Tests, 232 ODIs and 89 T20Is representing the blues, Mithali Raj has had one heck of a career. Her overall tally of 10,868 runs made her the leading run-scorer in women’s international cricket, and no batter has scored more than her 7805 in women’s ODIs. She was also the first to score seven fifties in a row in women’s ODIs, where her tally of 64 is the highest.

However, it’s not the records or the numbers that define Mithali and neither this article attempts to drown you with them. It’s the belief that Mithali Raj has provided to millions of young girls across the country to take that dreaded ‘single’ step and foray into the cricketing field.

Mithali Raj has nursed the palpitations of Indian parents that it is alright to allow their wards to pursue a career in cricket. After all, for a large part, it felt like cricket was a game for only one specific gender in India. However, ever since debuting in 1999, that is more than two decades back, Mithali has broken the glass ceiling on umpteenth occasions and now, an entire generation is reaping rewards for it.

Like any other cricketer, the twilight of Mithali’s career saw a string of controversies and some low points. The most notable being the fallout with women’s team coach Ramesh Powar during the 2018 World Cup. Lot of eyebrows were also raised regarding Mithali’s style of playing in an increasingly evolving sport. Strike rate, the buzzword in the cricketing community was often used to portray that Mithali had run her race in the sport and new blood needed to take her place.

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A true trailblazer

However, for a sport that was not given any attention at the turn of the century, it has been a marked departure that online chat rooms were full, scrutinising Mithali’s playing style under a microscope. The fact that India is having this conversation is down to the hard yards Mithali Raj had been putting in since the beginning of the century. If that’s not a change worth applauding which she brought single-handedly through her perseverance and determination, then it is hard to fathom what else is.

Mithali’s legacy will remain untouched even if better players than her may turn up (a big task). She is the start of it all. The one who dared to go beyond the conventional and carve out a path for an entire generation. She is what you may call in true essence – a trailblazer. And that is a sobriquet that not even the best in business may have the galls to take away from her.

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