Kolkata: Jhulan Goswami is on the verge of becoming the next Kapil Dev of Indian women’s cricket. Now, the question arises why is Jhulan being compared with the great Kapil Dev? Kapil Dev like Jhulan Goswami had to wait a long to make the world record as it proves records does not come easily. Hard work, dedication and determination is needed to reach this height. As not only in cricket, it may be any kind of sports nothing comes easily. It can happen to any cricketer who can go through a bad phase but the point lies how you overcome it quickly.
Jhulan has been the ICC Women’s cricketer of the year 2007, M.A. Chidambaram Trophy for the Best Women Cricketer 2011 and was awarded with the Arjuna Award in 2010 as well as Padma Shri in 2012.
Australian ex-women’s cricketer Cathryn Fitzpatrick who is the highest wicket-taker in ODIs for women claimed 180 wickets from 109 matches. Jhulan, who started her career from 2002 has bagged 175 wickets from 148 matches till date. Jhulan could have achieved this feat in the recently concluded ODI series against Australia and Sri Lanka respectively but her inconsistent performance in the ODI series against both the teams let her down otherwise she could have broken the record quite early. Now she has to wait until India will play a bilateral ODI series against West Indies at home after the T20 World Cup. In the recently concluded T20I and ODI series against Australia Jhulan claimed 4 wickets and 2 wickets respectively. She was awarded the player of the series in the T20I series against Australia but could not take any wickets against Sri lanka in the ODI series.
Jhulan belonged to a poor family from Chakda in the Nadia district of West Bengal. Jhulan’s family comprises of her father, mother, a brother and a sister. Her family did not want her to pursue her career in cricket. Mithu Mukherjee, ex-Indian Women’s cricketer watched her closely since Jhulan was a teenager (15 years). She is almost a celebrity now but stills looks after family. Now she resides in a personal flat in Dumdum. She is very much dedicated to her family and cricket. As of now she is unmarried. Jhulan has neither fall into any controversy nor anyone could drag her into. She is the only women’s cricketer till date whose advertisement hoardings are visible on the roadside.
Mithu Mukherjee, who has watched Jhulan closely from her teenage quoted revealed, “ It is not at all god gifted. Its only the result of terrific hard work, determination and dedication of a human being. She has always given her priority to cricket.”Mithu later added that a player of Jhulan’s class will never be under any pressure for the highest wicket-taker as she knows it’s just a matter of time.
Jhulan is scheduled to play in the ICC women’s T20 World Cup so she was barred of speaking to anyone. She is under the ICC code of conduct.
Neetu David, an ex Indian cricketer, who was a left-arm spinner was the highest wicket-taker in the Women’s cricket till she played scalped 141 wickets from 97 matches and still the no.4 ranked bowler in the ICC ODI rankings. Neetu later quoted as saying, “ I will be most happy if Jhulan breaks my record as she was my team-mate. She was very cooperative as a team-mate.”
Neetu later added, “ One of the most important thing about Jhulan is that she leads a very disciplined life. That is why she has been affected by injuries very few times which is her road to success.”
On asking Neetu about Jhulan’s medium pace, she quotes, “ Jhulan’s advantage is her height which she utilizes the most. Due to her height, she is able to release the ball from a high-arm action and that is why batsmen tend to find it difficult to get rid of her as it land s in a good length spot.”
Diana Edulji, a former Indian Women’s Test cricketer, quoted as saying, “Jhulan has a good fighting spirit. Her presence in the team puts the opposition under pressure Indian cricket has seen such a team player like Jhulan.”