The recent retirement of English cricketer, Charlotte Edwards has left each and every true cricket fan sad. She has been an inspiration for every young female who aspires to become a cricketer.
Just like Charlotte, female cricket fraternity has seen a lot of brave-hearts, whose presence made a difference to Women’s Cricket. We bring you 5 from the mammoth list, whose journey tends to inspire the generation and sings a legendary saga for us to admire and cherish.
Diana Eduljee
The Indian brave heart, who fought for the improvement of women’s cricket team. Diana received Arjuna Award in 1983 and was felicitated with Padma shri in 2002 for her efforts. Before venturing into Cricket, Diana had a successful stint with Basketball and Table Tennis. She went on to represent these games at Junior National Level before making a shift to Cricket. She joined a Cricket camp conducted by former test cricketer Lala Amarnath, where she honed her skills. In a rare and unfortunate accident, Diana lost her four front teeth while playing, but even this couldn’t stop her dedication in the game.
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Rachael Heyhoe Flint
Born on 11 June 1939, the former English cricketer had led England to their first Women’s cricket world cup in 1973. She holds a record of hitting first six in a Women’s test match; this was in 1963 at the Oval, against Australia.
She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1972, and was one of the first ten women admitted to the MCC in 1999, as an honorary life member.
In 2004, she was the first woman elected to the full committee of MCC. In October 2010 she was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame, the first woman to achieve this accolade.
Charlotte Edwards
Born on 17 December 1979 in England, Charlotte would have never thought of contributing mountains to the female cricket, but eventually she did by serving cricket with utmost dedication and interest. In 1995, she made her England debut and became the youngest player to do so. In 2000 she suffered a serious cruciate ligament injury while playing hockey, but this didn’t stop her from playing Cricket. And the rest is history now.
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ICC player of the year 2008, was the captain of England cricket team. She is the highest scorer in women’s ODI cricket and also highest scorer in T20 world cup till now with 768 runs in hand. She led England team to victory at Lord’s in the final of the World Twenty20 Championship in June 2009. In 2014 she was also named ‘Wisden Cricketer of the Year’.
Samantha Claire Taylor
A former English player who represented England in more than 150 matches. A top order batsman,Taylor was the first woman to be named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
Taylor did not play Cricket until the age of 13. Although she did play softball and hockey primarily.
Soon, cricket bug bit her when she was in Oxford and started playing with the men’s team in the university. She made her ODI debut in 1998 against Australia. Her initial career days had hicupps, but that only gave her more reasons to stick with Cricket and perform. Samantha was employed at Procter & Gamble and had to leave her high playing job, to accomodate cricket in her schedule.
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Anjum Chopra
Born on 20 May 1977 in New Delhi, India, Anjum is one of most respected and renowned women cricketers of all time. A sports person from the start, Anjum has represented hert school and college team in Athletics, Basketball and Swimming. Anjum has donned several hats, some of which includes being a player, captain, consultant, Motivatioal speaker, Author and Actor.
Related Article : 10 Lesser known facts about Female Cricket
Anjum chopra made her debut in One-day Internationals , in the early age of 17, and made her debut in Test cricket a few months later. She is the first Indian player to Score and ODI century for India.
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