Indian cricket team captain Mithali Raj recalled the struggles as an woman cricketer in the country, revealing that she had travelled unreserved in a train as an Indian international player.
“There were a lot of struggles in my journey. Now we are under the BCCI, but that time [when women cricketers were not under the board], the normal basic facility which a sports person gets to play even [we did not get]. As an India cricketer, I have travelled unreserved from Hyderabad to Delhi by train, as an India player,” Raj said at a session of We The Women initiative which was moderated by Barkha Dutt.
To which Dutt replied, “That would never happen to a man.”
“That’s what Rahul Dravid said. He said he has never travelled in train as an India player, but I did. But those difficulties make us strong. As women we face so many challenges at an early stage, that when we mature and take up the challenges, we become so strong mentally, that we can do so many things, that we ourselves dont believe that we are capable of,” 35-year-old added.
Raj also recalled that her grandparents were not comfortable when she took up sports.
Asked if people opposed her, she said “Very much, because I am from South India, my grandparents were not comfortable that I was playing a sport. My parents had to bear a lot, but they have cocooned my life in a such a way, that I did not have to deal with the negativity.”
Raj also presented a HER award to Iqra Rasool, a budding cricketer from Jammu and Kashmir, who wants to become a pace bowler and is now training in Bengal.
Raj had led the Indian team to the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup held earlier this year. In the final, the team lost to England in a nail biting contest.
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