Women's World Cup: The Mind Of Miss Cricket

There are many images of Mithali Raj that will endure long after the hurt of India’s loss in the Women’s World Cup final will heal.

One of them will be her ability to keep calm and a poker face no matter what the situation. The other is Mithali doing a jig with teammate Veda Krishnamurthy and shyly stopping when she realised TV camera was on them. Then there is the one from the losing moments of the final, when she sat with both her palms covering her mouth. She was distraught but was firm on not betraying that emotion.

However, what will outlast all these memories is the image of the Indian captain calmly sitting by the boundary rope and reading a book as she waited for her turn to bat. The nonchalance on display did not betray her steely resolve within as she emerged the top scorer for the country in the tournament with a total of 409 runs.

If cricket is called a captain’s game, Mithali is the quintessential leader. She takes her decisions and holds herself accountable for it.

Mithali could have easily shouted a ‘NO’ when striker Punam Raut called for a nonexistent run at a stage when there was no necessity to steal a run from under the England fielder’s nose. But she went for it only to sacrifice her wicket.

Mithali could have easily broken down at the post-match press conference talking about Sunday’s final defeat. This is the second time she has lost the World Cup title clash as a captain. But she put up a brave front and was all grace as she maintained that the country should be proud of her team’s achievement and that she was proud of her girls to have come this far.

Mithali’s friend and former India teammate Nooshin Al Khadeer said that the India captain does not show a lot of emotion, much like former India men’s captain MS Dhoni.

“One has to break his/her head in trying to make out what Mithali is thinking, just like Dhoni. Mithali and Dhoni mean business,’ Khadeer told DNA.

“They are there to do something for the country. They are on national duty. It is not about their behaviour or nature. It is about the responsibility on their shoulders.

“To have a person like Mithali around is a blessing. You need someone like her to calm things down in the dressing room or on the field. Harmanpreet Kaur is very aggressive. Punam Raut, of late, has become very aggressive.

And Mithali is there to keep things calm.”

Mithali comes across as a straight-forward person, calling a spade a spade. Even if it means talking about the shortcomings of her players with the intention that they get better and contribute to the improvement of Indian women’s cricket.

The longevity of Mithali in international cricket is something that is for the youngsters to emulate. Eighteen years since she made her ODI debut, the highest run-getter and the first and only batswoman to touch 6,000 runs should now play with the freedom and without the burden of captaincy. She has led in 109 out of her 186 ODIs as captain across three World Cups (2005, 2013 and 2017) as well as been a mentor and the ‘didi’ to her younger mates.

Mithali deserves to enjoy the game and continue to inspire the youngsters, guiding the next captain in the lead up to the 2021 World Cup.

Former India captain and first recipient of Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Lifetime Achievement Award for women, Shantha Rangaswamy called Mithali ‘Miss Cricket’.

“I have never seen a more dedicated player,” Rangaswamy told this paper. “Even in her sleep, she must be batting. That type of single-minded devotion is rare to see,” she added.

Khadeer seconded Rangaswamy. “Mithali is still so hungry for runs. Although she is the first to reach 6,000 ODI runs, she is still marching on. The basic motto is that she is hungry, keen to do the routine things, something that she loves doing the most. Mithali batting in nets for long hours shows her commitment.”

After the final, Mithali said that she is not going to be around in the next World Cup. She will now join those legendary captains in cricket who haven’t won the most coveted trophy.

One thing is for sure. Mithali is not calling it quits yet and has said she wants to play a couple of years more.

And even when she retires, there is no saying what she has on her mind. She would make an ideal coach or she might lend support as an administrator or even as a mere spectator.

You might catch her watching a woman’s match from the sidelines with a book in her hand. The image of her with the book is quite a paradox. The mind of the India captain is not an open book. Not by any stretch.