Jhulan Goswami talks about the expectations from the team after the World Cup, her best spells, and the time she felt like quitting the game
Interview by Annesha Ghosh12-Aug-20177:28
“To play any sport, you have to have a lot of passion”
What has the reception been like in Chakdaha, your home town, and Kolkata, where you currently live, after the World Cup?
I’m yet to visit Chakdaha, but yesterday they were showing the India-Pakistan match in a restaurant [in Kolkata] and people were watching the highlights keenly – ball by ball. It’s not a common sight, is it? It was nice to see that because the match happened a long time back.Given the recognition the team has received, do you reckon there will be more pressure and scrutiny than ever to contend with the next time India women take the field?
Yes, certainly. Whenever matches are on television, people get to know who you are. There’s going to be a lot of expectation: self-expectation, expectation from family, friends, and the media.There will be some good things about the increased attention and some difficult stuff as well. People will talk about things when we’ll fail. How we handle this will be the most important concern. The senior players, the coaches and the support staff will play a big role to figure a way out. Sometimes criticism helps you perform better in the next match. We should not focus on things beyond our control. We should instead be able to focus on our process, control our emotions and go ahead.Following a four-match winning streak in the World Cup, India lost two games in a row and were facing a knockout encounter against New Zealand. What was the atmosphere in the dressing room like ahead of that game?
Among other factors, I think what Tushar [Arothe, the coach] told us in a team meeting egged us on to perform the way we did against New Zealand. He said, unless you believe in yourself, you can’t win. “touristrepair karenge [It will hurt, there will be pain. We’ll repair it when we get home]. But on the field, you have to perform.” Those words instilled a lot of belief in us. Not only did we defeat New Zealand, we beat Australia and then almost pulled off what not many would have expected us to.Are there any specific changes since the 2013 World Cup that may have contributed to India’s run in this year’s tournament?
The 2013 World Cup was heartbreaking. In the World T20 last year, we lost the matches we should have won. After the early exit, the team had gone into a bit of a depression. To be playing a World Cup at home and not being able to make a mark was the most underwhelming experience. Unless you do well on a platform like the World Cup or the Olympics, your event – whether an individual discipline or a team sport – will struggle to get recognition or march forward. For the younger generation to take up sport in this country, they need to have role models they can follow. That’s one thing we were consistently struggling to do over the past World Cups.”You can trace the start of our journey to the Australia tour in early 2016. Whenever we tasted victory, we took pride in that, and even our losses taught us a great deal”•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesLuckily, over the last one and a half years, the BCCI played a big role in addressing several concerns contributing to our inconsistency. Ahead of this World Cup, we played a substantial number of matches. The ICC Women’s Championship ensured we played the best teams in several bilateral series. That helped us build the team and ensure the core of the team remained roughly the same. Most of the girls who played this World Cup have been together for the past 18 months or so. We were mindful of making sure that whoever makes the squad has at least experience worth 15 to 20 matches.You can trace the start of our journey to the Australia tour in early 2016. We won the T20 series there for the first time, and although we couldn’t wrap up the ODI series, we did defeat them in one match/a>. Then we won the West Indies home series 3-0, the Asia Cup that followed, the Qualifiers – Harmanpreet [Kaur] won us the nail-biting final – and then the Quadrangular. Whenever we tasted victory, we took pride in that and even our losses taught us a great deal. This new-found ability to accept failure and then setting our mind to stage a comeback helped us in this World Cup.Quantifiable results aside, to what extent do you believe you have been able to accomplish what you set out to achieve in the World Cup?
I think our campaign will go a long way in changing the ground realities of women’s cricket in India. Am I being falsely hopeful? I don’t think so. This is the first World Cup in which people watched us play. Apart from broadcasting of the matches, social media played a huge role. Electronic and print media complemented it perfectly. The way the ICC conceived of and promoted the tournament – all these factors have made this World Cup a success on so many levels. The revolution India needed to give women’s cricket an identity of its own, I would like to believe we have been able to bring that about.What did senior players like you and Mithali Raj want the team dynamic to be like?
We spent the majority of the past two years discussing how we can raise the profile of women’s cricket in India and create an individual identity for the sport. We would talk about how to create a good team, whom we can rely on more going forward. We knew how badly we wanted to do well in the World Cup, else it would be another wasted opportunity for women’s cricket in India.With 13 wickets from eight innings, including two four-fors, you were the third-highest wicket-taker in the 2005 World Cup. What targets did you set your 22-year-old self after making that final?
Many people would tell me, “It’s easy [to perform in anonymity]. No one knows you well. That’s why you’ve been successful in the World Cup.” I was young back then and comments like that made me uncomfortable. I realised if I didn’t bowl well for the next few years, I might not play the next World Cup. After the World Cup, there was a break for the next seven to eight months and then we played again in November-December. It was important for me to prove that I wasn’t finished. The home series against England in that period turned out to be fantastic for me, starting from the Test we played in Delhi. I took five wickets in the first innings and scored runs in the second. I was named the Woman of the Match, but unfortunately the Test was drawn.
“Most of the girls who played this World Cup have been together for the past 18 months or so. We were mindful of making sure that whoever makes the squad has at least experience worth 15 to 20 matches”
What do you think of the domestic structure at the state and zonal levels?
We have a few official tournaments organised by the BCCI – one-dayers, T20s and inter-zonals, which have three-day matches. It’s a good thing on the part of the board to persist with three-day games. We have Under-23, U-19 and will probably have U-16 in some time too. So the domestic structure is good, but I’d suggest increasing the number of matches. For some states, if they qualify, they get to play a lot of matches. If they don’t, then in a year a senior player gets to play only four matches. If they don’t perform in those four-five games, they won’t get selected in the zonal team and the year goes to waste.India went into the World Cup with three quick bowlers. While spin has always been the side’s strength, the lack of a genuine fourth fast-bowling option can’t be overlooked. Are there enough medium-pace resources in the national ranks?
Shikha [Pandey] has been doing well for the last couple of years. She has improved her skills and bowled well in the World Cup. Mansi [Joshi] too is a quality bowler. Whenever she’ll get the chance, she’ll do well. Sukanya Parida is also very promising. Then there’s Pooja Vastrakar, who unfortunately got injured this season. Since she bats well too, she can be a good allrounder.Ahead of the Australia tour in 2008, you replaced Mithali Raj as the captain, and were replaced by Anjum Chopra in 2012. How would you describe your captaincy stint?
It wasn’t a burden, but it was a big challenge for me because they handed me the captaincy just before the World Cup. It was a transition period with many newcomers making their way into the side. I had to handle them in a way that would get the best performance out of them without putting them under pressure. It was a big task for me, but just when I started enjoying myself more and performing better as a captain, I was removed after that series. I don’t know why. That was a bit disappointing because I wanted to remain the captain for some more time.I really enjoyed those two years. The team was very young: Harman, Punam Raut, Thirush Kamini, Gauhar Sultana, Veda [Krishnamurthy] – they all debuted around that period. Ekta Bisht debuted in the [2011] Quadrangular series. About 30-34 girls debuted for India during that period. Every series had two to three debutants. At a certain point I was like, “What’s going on?” The selectors would consult me [regarding the changes] at times and sometimes they wouldn’t.That transition period was crucial for all of us. I took that period as the most challenging and exciting period of my life. I wanted to set an example for them and make sure I wasn’t harsh. When they dropped me from captaincy, I didn’t feel any regret, but as a human being you feel bad. If they don’t like my way of captaincy, they have the right to remove me. It wasn’t a big issue.What do you make of Raj’s evolution as captain since she took over from Chopra in 2012 to leading the team to the final in this World Cup?
When Mithali came back as captain, I was happy. She had a team that had already played a couple of series and had an idea [about playing at the international level]. She was there, so I didn’t have to bother about that. Mithali the captain is very cool. I never saw her expressing her emotions on the field. She knows what she has to do and she is very clear about that. Secondly, when the team is good, the captain also looks good. She’s done a fantastic job for the country and this team is top-class.Jhulan Goswami dives in an attempt to take a catch during the 2002 Taunton Test•Getty ImagesHas there been any point in your career when you contemplated retirement?
Yes, after the World T20 in 2014. Before the tournament, I was bowling really well, but in Bangladesh I couldn’t bowl well. I was not able to give breakthroughs. After coming home, I had almost decided to retire. But some of my close friends told me, “No, it’s not the end. You can still make a comeback and play. It’s just one bad series.” Then I went back to the NCA, worked with Balwinder Singh Sandhu for a few days, and fortunately, during that time we played the bicentenary match of Lord’s. Mithali and I were selected for the Rest of the World XI v MCC. I got to speak to a few friends over there who told me, “How can you say you’re going to quit? You’re still the best. No one can touch you.” A few of them even said, “I can see you playing in the 2017 World Cup. You’re bowling in the final at Lord’s.”I realised if these people can have so much confidence in me, it means I have to work on a few things, especially in the mental aspect [of the game.] So I prepared in such a way that I could be fresh and enjoy my bowling. I believe when you enjoy your craft, the best things happen automatically. And things went exactly that way: in the following tour, to England, we won the Test match; I had a contribution there. [In the second ODI] in Scarborough, we lost the match by eight or nine runs [13 runs], but it was probably one of my best spells. I remember Heather Knight praising me for that spell. “That was Gozzy’s best spell I’ve ever faced.”You went through a lean patch, compounded by injury, ahead of becoming the leading wicket-taker in ODIs. Was the build-up to picking up the 181st wicket filled with pressure?
Initially I was really keen to get that wicket. But after a certain point, I realised I was putting unnecessary pressure on myself. I told myself, “Let’s not count, let’s not think about it. If that highest wicket-taker thing is in my destiny, it will happen. Let’s instead concentrate match by match, ball by ball and tour by tour, enjoy the series, the atmosphere and the cricket.” And after some time, I stopped counting.In the home series against West Indies, my performance wasn’t extraordinary. I pulled out of the Qualifier because of the injury. I knew I was going to play only one series before the World Cup – the Quadrangular. Though a lot of self-doubt had crept in by then, during the series all I was concerned about was the rhomboid muscle injury I was recovering from. I was doing extra treatment before and after every game because I didn’t want it to bother me much. Once I got that wicket, I was like, “India [Go one better than Jhulan, surpass her, play longer than her, and take India to greater heights].