Quotes from Mithali Raj

The biggest challenge I faced when I started playing in the 90s was my immediate family members were not very keen that I get into sport, leave alone cricket.

A couple of my friends told me to get into cooking but I have not been able to get myself into the kitchen.

The Qualifier is a different standard to what we will face in the World Cup in England. The conditions will be different, the pressure is different, double or treble what we faced here. This will give a base for all the young players rather than go into World Cup raw.

With more sponsors coming in, media engagements happening, and matches being televised, youngsters can get carried away. In such a scenario, a mentor can step in and help in channelising the cricketers' energies into the sport.

I would love to mentor youngsters.

These youngsters are gaining experience and making use of the opportunities. At some point, it will help me be relieved of responsibility because World Cup is such a high pressure tournament.

When I got associated with Australian Diamonds, I started to know more about it, things like certificate of assurance and that they are sourced from a trusted and iconic mine... If you are spending so much, you should know from where the diamond is coming.

My dad and some of them felt I should be playing on home soil and retire in front of the home crowd.

There are some people who feel that they deserve a particular award or recognition, but I don't fall in that category.

There are expectations in everyone's lives. It might be small or big, but then you cannot forget to prioritise what is important and try to focus when it is really needed.

Men's cricket sets the bar. We are always trying to reach where they set the standard.

Well, I think the turning point, in my opinion, has to be 2006 as in that year we came under BCCI. With that a lot of facilities were provided to us, a lot of things changed for good and better.

But if you have live matches and there is TV coverage, I'm sure you have more viewership because people would love to see women's cricket again on television.

Initially, I was into dance and learnt Bharatnatyam for eight years. I appeared on various TV shows.

There are a lot of misconceptions that we can't play fast bowling or we can't bowl fast. We should have mixed matches. I have also played a lot of matches against boys because that's how we train.

It's not just about women's cricket, but everywhere, every athlete's momentum has been broken because of Covid-19.

My teammates will tell you I find it hard to remember what happened two weeks earlier, let alone what happened a decade and a half back.

I love sleeping and to inculcate the habit of early rising, my dad forced me to take up a sport. That was the only reason I started playing cricket in the first place. And thereafter it continued.

I am from a south Indian Tamilian family, so all my cousins are into academics and I alone was in sports.

It is the pride to play for India that keeps me going. Not many get a chance to play for India and I feel very fortunate to be still playing. The will to do well for India is a big motivation.

But as a player, you feel sad that at this level you are being singled out for the fact that I stood up for myself. I have not done anything wrong standing up for myself.

Let's say something like Olympics is happening, I will definitely watch because that is something which is live after so many months. I think sports will definitely get people to watch.

All of us at some point have been coached by a male cricketer. I strongly believe that they get a lot of intensity into the training sessions. They are very hard taskmasters.

Having captained India for long, it is habitual to discuss with my mates and assess the bowling changes, the bowling changes, the field setting that the opposing captain would do.