‘People do take women with a pinch of salt'

TOI’s Sports Guest Editor Shantha Rangaswamy, Former India Cricket Captain & BCCI Apex Council Member, Says Women Are Still Not Accorded Equal Status Except At Home...

- SHANTHA RANGASWAMY

Shantha Rangaswamy is a pioneer in more ways than one. She is the first captain of the Indian women’s Test team, the first Indian woman to score an international century, the first woman captain to win a Test, the first woman recipient of the Arjuna Award and even the first Indian woman to hit a six in international cricket. She is also not one to mince words, as we found out during a freewheeling interaction after she agreed to be TOI’s Guest Editor for the day. Excerpts...

How pleasing was the Indian women’s team’s win over Pakistan the other day?

The win was on expected lines. But then any game against Pakistan, in any sport, can be very tense. I’m glad they held their nerve and carved out a very impressive win, thanks mainly to the partnership between Sneh Rana and Pooja Vastrakar. We mustn’t ignore the efforts of the bowlers, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Rana. Jhulan, of course, we expect to do well. There were many pluses. There could not have been a better start.

You are looked at as the ‘founding mother’ of Indian women’s cricket…

Yes, but I never earned a single penny throughout my playing days, in a playing career spanning 22 years. But money isn’t everything. The passion for the game was what was driving us. The first two-wheeler that I owned was thanks to a prize I got in the Pune Test against New Zealand, when I got a century in 1976. I did not even own a bicycle before that.

There have been other struggles…