Celebrating Jhulan Goswami — gentle giant, fierce warrior, trailblazing world-beater

Over the course of an illustrious career, the Indian pacer took the most wickets in women’s cricket and won matches in all conditions. Her astonishing rise from small-town hopeful to all-time great has inspired a generation. Indian cricket will benefit if she remains involved in the game

Anju Jain was first struck by the teenager’s height. She was easily the tallest of all the players assembled at Panchkula, Haryana, for the Indian team’s preparatory camp ahead of the 2000 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand.

Anju also found out that she was probably the quickest female bowler she had ever kept wicket to. There was another thing she soon noticed about the girl from a small town near Kolkata: her dedication. She felt the youngster had great potential (even if she didn’t make it to the World Cup squad).

It was around the same time that then national selector Shubhangi Kulkarni first watched her, at an under-19 tournament in Gurgaon, also in Haryana. She was impressed and thought she was good enough to play for India.

What neither Anju nor Shubhangi could have imagined at the time was that the tall girl, named Jhulan Goswami, would become the most successful bowler of all time in international women’s cricket.

Anju last met Jhulan a couple of months ago at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, where she was undergoing rehabilitation, ahead of the England tour. “She was still the girl I met at Panchkula,” Anju tells The Hindu over phone. “She had the same dedication and the willingness to work hard. She had the same enthusiasm, too.”

The enthusiasm Jhulan spoke with on a lovely November morning at the quiet Goan town of Porvorim nine years ago is fresh in memory. Women’s cricket was not as popular those days, but players like Mithali Raj and Jhulan demanded attention for their superlative performances on the global stage. So you didn’t want to miss her, even though you had travelled to Goa to cover the Ranji Trophy. Jhulan was leading Bengal in the Senior Women’s ODI league.

She was the No. 1 bowler in the ICC ranking at the time. When she came on to bowl her last spell in international cricket at Lord’s last month, she was still among the finest pacers in the women’s game. She may have been nearing 40, but she proved a handful for the England batters, as she took two wickets as well as an excellent low catch at slip in her farewell game.