The 34-year-old credited BCCI for making the difference to women's cricket.
India women's cricket Mithali Raj has seen both sides of cricket. The earlier era when they played the game just for passion and now when they are being treated like super stars.
Raj's two decade long journey in international cricket has been an emotional roller coaster. She has led the team to two World Cup finals (2005 and 2017) and has lost both of them. The difference is on Tuesday they were given a hero's welcome, which is far from a nondescript return home 12 years ago.
"Obviously, it is quite overwhelming to see such kind of reception. It is first of its kind for all of us," said Raj after arriving from London early on Wednesday.
"We got not exactly similar but a little lesser in 2005 because then we were not under the BCCI. At that time I was wondering, had we would have been under BCCI, what kind of reaction would we have got? What kind of feedback would we get back home?
"Today, I actually feel it is just a huge thing back home. I am sure the girls would have enjoyed being received like that. It is just the beginning of good times for women's cricket."
Now women's cricket has come under the BCCI, which has proposed to gift Rs 50 lakh each to each team member for their performance in the ICC Women's World Cup. Asked what more do they want from the board, Raj said, "If you ask me, I am playing since 1999, when there were no monetary benefits but you should ask the question to those who have come now."
The 34-year-old credited BCCI for making the difference to women's cricket. "Coming under the BCCI has made a huge difference to women's cricket. I always believe that more the matches are televised; you can always attract more viewership and more people to follow women's cricket.
"And the way the girls have played, not just the Indian team but the other teams who put up very good standard of cricket throughout the World Cup, it has actually given impetus to women's cricket globally," she added.
Asked if an Indian Premier League for women would help their game, she replied in affirmative. "After going through the World Cup and the way women's cricket has responded and improved the standard, they are taking it to different level, scoring more than 300 plus. Every team has got a century. It is probably because of the leagues in Australia and England. Even couple of our players have improved their standard and have performed really well for the country.
However, she put the ball in the BCCI's court to decide on the IPL.
"We now have a base, it will help even the domestic players in terms of exposure, but again it is up to the BCCI to organize the league. As a player, I feel now the domestic players are exposed to good cricketing environment and interact with foreign players, they will benefit," said Mithali.
The Hyderabadi said she was humbled at being named captain of the ICC's World Cup XI team, but she preferred to be called a winning captain. "Being named the captain of ICC team XI is privilege. I didn't expect it. But I would have preferred to be a winning captain. Unfortunately that didn't happen. But the way team has done, I can proudly say that I have led the team well."
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