Published: Jan 27, 2015, 12:43 PM (IST)
Edited: Jan 27, 2015, 03:27 PM (IST)
Indian women’s cricket team captain Mithali Raj expressed her surprise at being selected for the Padma Shri. Mithali hadn’t expected the honour ahead of the popular men in blue.
As quoted by The Hindu, Mithali said, “Honestly when I was pitted against Virat Kohli, I gave up because when you compare us with men’s cricket then we think that we may not get it. So I was not expecting it, but it came as a pleasant surprise.”
Mithali recalled her starting days, a time when lot of people didn’t know women’s cricket existed and now she believes this women’s cricket has come a long way.
“It (the national awards) is a nice way of appreciating your efforts, because at a time when I started playing cricket, there was no awareness for women’s cricket. People were not even knowing that women’s cricket existed. And from that phase to today where people would want to follow women’s cricket, I think we have come a long way,” Mithali added.
Making her debut in 1999, Mithali has played 153 One-Day Internationals (ODIs), 10 Tests and 47 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). She believes that national awards of such repute will encourage young girls to take up sports.
“These awards will really prop up the young girls and players to take up the sport and do much better. With this award probably people will be following women’s cricket keenly and will take a note of the international calendar of women,” said Mithali, who once held the record for highest Test score in Women’s cricket.
The BCCI congratulated Mithali through a tweet:
Congratulations to Team India women’s captain Mithali Raj on being awarded the Padma Shri #TeamIndia #Mithali pic.twitter.com/fN85S5NLlI
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 27, 2015
