MUMBAI: Former India captain and ICC Hall of Famer Diana Edulji believes that having more U19 and Emerging team tours along with bringing back the domestic red-ball tournament are the way to go forward for women's cricket in India.
Edulji, one of the pioneers of women's cricket in India, was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame earlier this week. And with this, she became the first Indian women cricketer to be given the honour, recognising her contribution to the sport and 17-year-long international career. "It's a big, big honor for me. I think it is the right time because the World Cup is in India and a woman cricketer from India is being recognized," Edulji told this daily during an ICC event ahead of the first semifinal of the 2023 ICC Men's ODI World Cup in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Edulji played 20 Tests and 34 ODIs in her career and took 107 wickets across formats. She also led her country in four Tests and 18 ODIs, including in the 1993 Women's World Cup in England. Long after her retirement from international cricket, she served as one of the members of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) to oversee the running of the BCCI from 2017 to 2019.
During the interaction, she credited ICC and BCCI for the work they have put in for women's cricket saying, "The ICC is doing a lot to promote women's cricket, and BCCI itself is doing a lot and I think together women's cricket now can go forward." The year 2023 has been good for women's cricket, especially India. They won the U19 T20 World Cup, reached the semifinal of the senior event, the inaugural season of the Women's Premier League saw viewership reach new heights and the senior team won the gold medal in the Asian Games. When asked how could they take the momentum forward, the 67-year-old said that playing continuous cricket is the way.
"Whether it's domestic, whether it's international, the players can't be playing a lot of cricket in one month and then spend another three months at home. Now there has to be a proper structure. I'm very happy that BCCI has agreed to play Test matches. That is the right step. If you want cricket to improve, you have to learn to play the longer version, then you can play all the versions. You have to get that temperament to stay at the wicket," she said referring to India women's two home Tests against England and Australia in December.
While India women are getting ready to play their first home Test game in nine years, they do not have a domestic red-ball event at the moment. In the past, there used to be a Senior Women's Cricket Inter Zonal Three-Day tournament, but the competition was discontinued after the 2017-18 season. Edulji believes that there has to be a first-class tournament for the women at the domestic level. "Definitely domestic cricket has to have one longer version tournament," she said.
Praising the up-and-coming generation of cricketers who won the U19 T20 World Cup earlier this year, Edulji said that they need to push and make their case, putting pressure on the senior players. "I'm really surprised that they still haven't yet made it into the senior team. I think they need to put pressure, which will help the seniors also play that there is someone behind now," she said.
With the next Women's ODI World Cup set to be played in India in 2025, Edulji said there has to be a lot of Women's U19 and Emerging tours like the men do over the next two years. "That's how we can build bench strength. You need a lot of tours, but it's not necessary that you have to play the big country, you can play the smaller countries with the Under-19, and then it is possible that you can build and have a very strong team and win the World Cup," Edulji signed off.
