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Women empowerment is a much talked about topic these days. Whenever instances of substantial achievements by women come into spotlight talks of women empowerment become prominent. India is not behind by any means when it comes to produce inspirational women leaders across various paths of life. Today I am going to talk about one such leader in our segment She Le@ds who has achieved enormous success in cricketing world and become the inspiration behind many young girls trying to pursue a career in cricket.
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Mithali Raj during ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2017 in England |
Mithali Raj (Full Name: Mithali Dorai Raj) is the current one day internationals(ODI) and test captain of Indian women's cricket team. Even though she is talked about more for her numerous on field records, her role as a leader and idol to the future cricketers is of immense importance to Indian cricket. Due to her long tenure in international cricket and extraordinary achievements lot of times she has been compared with the great Sachin Tendulkar. But she has definitely created a space of her own in the history of women's cricket. Behind those staggering numbers which she achieved over the years, lies enormous sacrifice, dedication and passion for the sport.
She started pursuing cricket at a young age of ten after sacrificing her childhood passion of dance. Someone who was very fond of sleeping, got rid of that habit too just to accompany her brother for the cricket coaching classes. Sacrifice and dedication for greater cause have been her mantra from a very tender age. It was those early days when her cricketing skills were first noticed by her brother's coach. Little did the coach nor Mithali's family knew that one of the greatest of women's cricket was already in making.
Playing with senior cricketers like Purnima Rau, Anjum Chopra, Anju Jain in her early days would have helped to shape her game in the right direction. She started her ODI career with a hundred on debut against Ireland. There is no looking back since then. Mithali kept on piling runs across the formats while climbing the success ladder. With greater success comes greater responsibility and Mithali is no exception to that. Soon she was leading the national team across formats.
Being part of the national team for more than two decades she has seen it all. In spite of being the only Indian captain to lead the country in two of the 50 overs ODI world cup finals the trophy has remained elusive. To fulfil that dream she has taken retirement from T20 internationals to focus majorly on 2022 ODI world cup. Passion to achieve greater success for the country is still so high even after sustained success for so long. She has been a great role model for the younger generation of women's cricket. She has played the role of a player cum mentor to the younger ones over the years. She is not someone who should only be remembered for all the runs that she scored or milestones she achieved. She has been one of the most influential figures in women's cricket globally. Her passion towards the game has inspired many young girls to pursue the game as a career choice in a country where men's cricket has grabbed all the spotlight over the years. Her on field calm attitude makes her a good captain. At the same time she is always very vocal off the field when it comes to the betterment of women's cricket.
Because of her extraordinary contribution she has won many accolades including Arjuna award in 2003, Padma Shri in 2015, Wisden leading woman cricketer in 2017. She is the 1st women cricketer to complete 20 years in international cricket. What a journey! Her on field achievements show the successful side of her, but what doesn't get reflected completely is her hard work and sacrifices to reach where she is today. Recently a Bollywood biopic on Mithali has been announced with Taapsee Pannu playing the lead role. I am sure that movie will showcase lot more shades of this cricketing legend. As she has already indicated that 2022 World cup can draw a curtain on her illustrious career we would hope that she is able to add the most valuable feather to her cap with a World cup win before signing off.
Image Credit:
BMN Network/flickr.com
Greatthinker2310, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Image Design: Bala Kumar
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