Mithali Raj’s record

When Virat Kohli congratulated Mithali Raj on reaching 6,000 runs in ODI cricket, he put up the image of Punam Raut on social media. Kohli’s faux pas caused much merriment on the internet — how amazing was it that the men’s team captain couldn’t recognise the women’s team captain! But it’s not merely Kohli who deserves the embarrassment that came his way: How many of India’s self-proclaimed votaries of cricket can tell Mithali apart from Punam? Not many, sadly, despite the fact that Mithali has been the pivotal player for the Indian team for 18 years, since she debuted as a 16-year-old in 1999. She scored a century on debut, and now she’s become the first woman to reach the milestone of 6,000 ODI runs.

Mithali and fast bowler Jhulan Goswami have made the team competitive over the years, and inspired more and more young girls to dream of a career in cricket. India won a Test series in England for the first time in 2006, and later that year more good came in — the Indian cricket board (BCCI) took charge of women’s cricket. Women cricketers loved this, for now they were under the umbrella of the world's richest cricket board. But BCCI turned out to be a reluctant patron. The women didn’t play another Test for eight years after that historic win over England in 2006. Even ODIs/T20s were sparingly scheduled. Another example of BCCI’s priorities: In 2013, the women’s World Cup matches were shifted from Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium so that the Ranji Trophy final match could be played there.

Privately, BCCI officials would like to argue that women’s cricket is not really popular or marketable. It’s not true, for women’s cricket has its niche market; but even if this claim was true, it’s the job of BCCI to promote and create a market for women’s cricket. Why didn’t BCCI send the women's team to the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games? Medals there would have raised the profile of women’s cricket and made the players more recognisable to the fans — and, perhaps, even to Kohli.