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Mithali Raj, former Captain of women’s cricket team; Shantha Rangaswamy, former and first Captain, and Shreyanka Patil, Cricketer at The Hindu Huddle 2025, in Bengaluru
| Photo Credit:
MURALI KUMAR K
Shantha Rangaswamy, the first Indian women’s cricket team captain, spoke about her pioneering role. “We laid the foundation. We may not have seen the likes of Mithali and Shreyanka if we had faltered in the initial stages. What drove us was the passion for the game,” Shantha said in a session titled ‘No Boundaries: Growth of Women’s Cricket in India’ moderated by KC Vijaya Kumar, Sports Editor, The Hindu.
In a glittering international career which spanned over two decades, Mithali moved the needle in terms of popularising women’s cricket. Mithali stated that the turning point for the sport came in 2006, when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took control of women’s cricket.
“In my early days, when the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI) ran the sport, the financial aspect was not great. It was a struggle to get investors and endorsements for us to have an international series. Coming under the BCCI was huge, because that opened access to better infrastructure, resources, equipment, and domestic structure,” Mithali said.
One pitch for all
Coming under the BCCI umbrella gave Mithali and others access to top-class facilities like the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. At the NCA, interactions between women cricketers and stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid proved to be invaluable. “When you have a dialogue with the likes of Sachin and Dravid, you learn a lot,” Mithali said.
The 42-year-old recalled a time when she sought the help of Tendulkar. “When I was a bit older, I had trouble picking fast bowlers. I asked Tendulkar for advice, and he told me to practice on 18-yard pitches instead of 22-yard strips. This helped me a great deal, as I went on to win the T20 ‘Player of the series’ award in South Africa,” Mithali said.
Shreyanka, the modern-day star, paid tribute to her predecessors. “Shanta madam laid the foundation. They had to face challenges initially because not all families allowed girls to play. And then came Mithali. People talked about Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar as the big names. But in women’s cricket, Mithali was the biggest name for us. Our generation cannot thank our seniors enough for what they have done for women’s cricket. We are now in a stage where we get everything – infrastructure, facilities, exposure and much more,” Shreyanka said.
Published on May 9, 2025
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