Indian cricket veteran Mithali Raj reckons she’s got at least a year or two left in her career before she decides to call it a day.
The 35-year-old struck a match-winning half-century against Pakistan in the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 on Sunday. This was her fourth 50-plus score in a World T20 match, taking her to the top of the list among Indians. She made her India debut in 1999 and is still going strong.
During a recent interview with Mid-Day, which was published on Tuesday, Raj was asked about the ‘R’ word (retirement, in case you’re wondering) and what keeps her going. Her reply: “I don’t know what keeps me going. All I know is I enjoy batting.”
She added, “A sportsperson’s career is quite short as compared to say, a lawyer or a doctor, so I am just trying to play as many games to the best of my ability. When you represent your country, you cannot forego even 1% of your commitment towards working hard. I believe I have another year or two before I can hang my boots. I am working extremely hard on my fitness too.”
Raj also revealed during the interview that playing in corporate cricket tournaments in the 1990s helped her build her match temperament. “That’s the plus point of playing in the 1990s,” she said. “Though the number of matches in domestic cricket was low and international [games] were hardly held, the Andhra Pradesh Women’s Cricket Association and [former official] TN Pillay used to send a women’s team entry for every corporate invitation tournament.”
She added, “Though the standard would not be very great since corporate people play for the love of the sport, for players like us, those matches helped us understand how to deal with different situations.”
Raj said that she came across bowlers with “weird actions” and poor ground conditions at such tournaments. “As a batter, you have to try to pick through those actions,” she said. “Sometimes, you had to play on very bad grounds. You did not have a choice and the wicket was either under-prepared or you played on matting tracks. Those hard days gave me a platform to work on my temperament.”
You can read the entire interview here.
