She is among India’s best known women cricket players and now Mithali Raj has demonstrated why. She has had the distinction of leading the Indian women cricket team and had even become the highest Indian run getter (including the men) in T20 matches. Now she has another accomplishment to her credit – she is now has the highest number of runs in women’s cricket.
Mithali Raj is now the leading run-scorer across all three forms of women’s cricket – Test, ODI, and T20 formats.
The Indian women played a one-off test in England this June which ended in a draw. After that, the English women won two ODIs comfortably by 8 wickets and 5 wickets. India won the third match which was a face-saver. Raj was named Player of the Match for her unbeaten 75 off 86.
While statistics of men’s games are well known, women’s cricket statistics are not. Women’s cricket receives only a fraction of the attention and funding that the men do.
Sachin Tendulkar remains the highest run-getter for the men in the world. Then there are other coincidences between Mitali Raj and Tendulkar as this tweet tells us.
While the two players may be equally talented and/or hardworking and certainly have be responsible for creating many records for the country, consider the fame and wealth the two enjoy. The men get to play much more than the women – at home and abroad. Tendulkar is wealthy and famous beyond most of our dreams and is honoured with the country’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna among numerous other accolades.
Now if a young boy shows cricketing talent early in life, he will be encouraged by his family to make a go of it. On the other hand, a young girl wanting to make a career out of cricket may well be dissuaded by her family. Considering the possible career trajectories of that boy and that girl, it is easy to understand why.
The achievement of a woman player like Mithali has to be viewed in the context of how differently men and women’s cricket are run and funded. It has to be viewed in the context of the kind of adulation the men receive from fans as well as the fact that there are few platforms that will live telecast women's matches.
There will be three T20 matches between India and England now – on 9th, 11th and 14th July. The ODIs were being streamed on SonyLIV and TV Telecast on Sony TEN and presumably the T20 matches will be as well.
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