Mithali Raj calls time on record-laden career

Brut India

Twenty-three years of hustle and glory... Mithali Raj called time on her storied career, announcing her decision to "retire from all forms of international cricket".    Breakfast with Champions

Transcript

00:00I wanted to be a dancer.

00:01If you talk about cricket, people talk about men's cricket, never women's cricket.

00:04When money flows, there are other distractions.

00:09Cricket all through these years was only related to men's cricket.

00:15If you talk about cricket, people talk about men's cricket, never women's cricket.

00:18Yeah.

00:19Girls were never into cricket or probably I don't see any girls those days actually watching the match.

00:24Yeah.

00:24They used to come only to have fun, watch the boys and go.

00:28So that was it, nobody would know they were batting, bowling, what is this, field set and stuff like that.

00:33But now when you have these young boys or young girls coming up and saying like you know,

00:38we saw your match, we want to play cricket, where can we go and enrol ourselves.

00:43So that's a success for me.

00:46Yeah.

00:46Because getting the girls to watch cricket is a big thing.

00:50It was my dad's decision to put me into cricket.

00:53Yeah.

00:53And of course mom didn't want me to be a cricketer, she wanted me to be a dancer.

00:58Oh.

00:59Yeah.

00:59I thought you were going to say doctor, when you said D, I thought you'd say doctor.

01:03Because mothers are always saying, become a doctor kid.

01:07No, I started dance much before I got into cricket.

01:11And dance was something of my own choice.

01:13Yeah.

01:13I wanted to be a dancer.

01:15So which form?

01:17Bharatanatyam, classical dance.

01:19I felt I enjoyed dancing.

01:20Yeah.

01:21I enrolled myself and then cricket happened because of various reasons.

01:24From a South Indian family, a Tamil family, like you know, cricket was nowhere.

01:30Nobody played sport in my family.

01:31Yeah, sport in India, any sport.

01:33Yeah.

01:34So for my grandparents to accept that their granddaughter is playing cricket,

01:39that too with the boys.

01:40And she goes in the morning and comes back in the evening.

01:42She's like, I'm here, I'm here, and stuff like that.

01:44And I have a couple of stitches on my face.

01:47So like, you know, no one will marry her, it's cut here, it's cut here.

01:51And my dad, my mom were like these enemies.

01:55Yeah.

01:56But then my parents have cocooned me from all these things.

02:00It never came to me to deal, you know.

02:03If I had to deal with it as a youngster,

02:05probably mentally I wouldn't be as strong as what I've turned out to be.

02:10But I basically see myself mentoring because I think that is something which is very important in today's,

02:17the current players who are playing.

02:20Yeah.

02:20Because there's so much of cricket and with it now in women's cricket,

02:24there is, when money flows, there are other distractions.

02:27I think I've seen a lot of players from my own team

02:31who could not handle the instant success that World Cup gave us.

02:36Yeah.

02:37Not everybody are from cities or given that cushioning of parents who have knowledge how to groom you as children.

02:45I had that advantage, but not everyone would.

02:47There are a lot of girls who come from very interiors.

02:50And for them, this exposure is very new and they struggle.

02:53So at those times, it's important that as a probably a senior player or if you have a mentor who can work on them.

03:00Yeah.

03:00Then they can actually extend their career.

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