Indian women’s cricket team skipper Mithali Raj still get saddened when she thinks of their nine-run loss against England in the final of World Cup 2017. She feels it is only after their recent feat that women’s cricket is achieving new heights in our country. However the 34-year-old said that the youngsters have to wait a long time to get their due from the government and board.

Talking about the Lengthy gap after World Cup, Raj said, “Obviously (it has affected us)…but I think it has done well as we have got a platform where we could talk about women’s cricket, talk about women cricketers and how women’s cricket has gone through a transition period. Next year is going to be far busier than this year. We have a lot of series lined up and it is pretty much back to back. We start off with a tour to South Africa followed by home series. We start our season in December with domestic cricket.”

Recently, Veda Krishnamurthy has been bought by the Women’s Big Bash league franchise Hobart Hurricanes. She will become only the 3rd Indian women cricketer to play in WBBL after opener Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur. Talking about the same during the FICCI’s felicitation programmes for women cricketers, where Jhulan Goswami and Rahul Dravid was also present, Mithali said, “It would have been good if some of the women cricketers would have had played in other foreign leagues. But again I would say that a gap is needed to promote women’s cricket.”

She further added, “When you make it big, like play in the World Cup, you need to have time so that you can promote women’s cricket and women’s cricketers. And there are some of the players who have been playing Big Bash League (BBL) and it has helped their game.”

Indian captain concluded by talking about her tough initial days in the 90s, she said, “Way back in 90’s, it was very difficult for both (Raj and Jhulan Goswami) of us to go through the journey wherein U-16 and U-19 we had to travel in unreserved trains and used to stay in hostels. And it continued when the women’s cricket was under WCI (Women’s Cricket Association of India). In India, we need to make it big before getting some recognition and support from the government.”