BLUE FLAME
‘Apocalypse’, if we may refer to it from Indian cricket’s point of view—the destruction of the Aussies at the hands of India’s Harmanpreet Kaur in the 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup semis. That’s what prompted two sports journalists, Karunya Keshav (KK) and Sidhanta Patnaik (SP), to reclaim some more women cricketing legends from the past. Excerpt from an interview with Amrit Sarkar in which they speak about their journey
Q. Your book traces the four-decade journey of women’s cricket in India. Did the 2017 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup inspire it?
KK: Absolutely. We had been thinking of getting a book off the ground before that, but the interest really took off with the World Cup. It helped that every match was on TV or streamed, social media embraced it, the PM tweeted about it, male cricketers spoke about it, and the women lifted their game to come up with fantastic performances.
Q. Was it hard to get under the skin of the story, given that there hasn’t been much formal research on the topic?
KK: It was a challenge. But that was what we set out to do—to reach out to voices beyond the usual, to bring out the stories of those who have been vital in the journey, but remained in the background. As reporters, we had been trying to do this for some time, to bring more diverse voices to our articles, so this was an extension of that.
SP: By reaching out to the unseen faces, we got a wider scope to work beyond what little was known. Every person we met was happy to share her story.
Q. Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana are India’s new poster girls. Who from the historical archives would have given them a tough chase in terms of Twitter followers?
KK: Shantha Rangaswamy for her straight talk, Rumeli Dhar for her attitude and skill, Pramila Bhat for her personality.
SP: Shubhangi Kulkarni and Purnima Rau.
Q. What do you think of as the biggest moment in women’s cricket?
KK & SP: A sold-out Lord’s. Having watched women’s cricket in back-of-beyond villages and empty stadiums, to see and be part of the atmosphere at Lord’s—a place where women weren’t even allowed to play not too long ago—was unbelievable. When people are chanting for Mithali Raj on the tube and queuing up for tickets, it was a sure sign women’s cricket had arrived!