Cash rewards from the BCCI, various state governments, BMW cars, meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi has managed to hide the sorry state of affairs of women’s cricket in India.
It was not very long ago when the likes of Veda Krishnamurthy, Punam Raut, Sushma Verma were relatively unknown among the fans.
However, a stupendous performance in the recently-concluded World Cup in England has made the women a household name in this cricket-obsessed nation.
Mithali Raj & Co. exceeded all the expectations and defied all the odds to make it to the final where they fell short by just nine runs from lifting the World Cup.
However, their valiant effort, nevertheless, has been rightly showered with praise from all over. But amidst all this, the fact of the struggles of the women cricketers have taken the back seat. And one such incident has come to the fore which proves that there is still a very long way to go before the women enjoy as much popularity and recognition as their male counterparts.
What is even more disappointing that the unfortunate incident has happened with none other than India’s inspirational skipper Mithali Raj, who is considered the Sachin Tendulkar of women’s cricket.
Mithali, who is the leading run-scorer in ODIs, has been lauded from all the quarters but surprisingly Telangana, her home state, is yet to recognise her contributions. The 33-year-old, who lead the team to the 2017 World Cup final, has been struggling for well over 11 years to get the plot of land (500 yards) which was promised to her by the erstwhile government of late YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
The batswoman was promised the land and Rs 5 lakh after she had led the team to final of the 2005 World Cup which India lost to Australia. Mithali’s family is yet to comment on the issue but sources close to them say that land was also identified but unfortunately nothing happened after that.
“Since then Mithali’s parents (Dorai Raj and Leela Raj) have been running pillar to post to realise the promise. They met the officials several times but it was all in vain. In fact, Mithali and her mother Leela had met late YSR just a month or so before his tragic death,” the source was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
“Despite several attempts, nothing happened and that left them frustrated. Mithali too had met the chief minister but still there was no progress on the matter,” the sources added.
The source further said that Mithali was so frustrated with the treatment that she later told her parents to stop inquiring about the land.
“A player cannot be running around to get what was promised to her. Isn’t it the responsibility of the government to recognise the achievements of its players and honour them?” the source questioned.
Well, the treatment is disappointing as well as a bit surprising considering that the state government had handed huge rewards to Tennis star Sania Mirza (Rs 2 crore) and Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu (Rs 5 crore and 1000 square yards of land).