Lord’s, 24 September 2022: a day that was all about Jhulan Goswami – until it wasn’t. A final bow to her 20-year international career; a guard of honour by the England players as she walked out to bat for one final time; taking two wickets to complete a career haul of 355. Then, with England on the verge of an unlikely victory, Deepti Sharma ran out Charlie Dean backing up, and all hell broke loose.
A year and a half later Goswami is enjoying retirement: she spends time with her family, works for her state association in West Bengal, helping to bring through the next generation of female cricketers, and has an inaugural Women’s Premier League title under her belt in her capacity as bowling coach and mentor for the Mumbai Indians. But this giant of Indian women’s cricket is still vexed about the way her retirement match ended.
Not about Sharma’s actions, though. “Deepti took the right decision,” Goswami says. “It was absolutely within the law.” Her ire is reserved for what she sees as the hypocrisy of the predominantly English crowd, who ensured Goswami’s exit took place with a chorus of boos, and of the England players, who could not hide their disgust at the incident. Heather Knight went as far as to accuse Sharma of lying about it.
“In the 2019 [men’s] World Cup final, the ball hit Ben Stokes’s bat and went for a boundary,” Goswami says. “You could say they should not have taken those runs. Deepti acted within the law but the opposition team were not happy. But when it was a World Cup final, and the ball hits the bat and goes for a boundary, you are taking that four.
“You want to maintain the spirit of the game? Then do that, whether you are playing a World Cup final or just a bilateral series. You [England] should say: ‘It’s the spirit of the game, I’m not going to take that four.’ Or, you want to play within the law – then that [Stokes’s boundary] is within the law. But then you also must respect Deepti’s run out. I don’t think the discussion should continue.”
Whether you concur with Goswami or not, all can agree that there will for ever be disappointment in the way that day shifted away from what should have been a focus on celebrating her incredible career. The fast bowler represented India on 284 occasions, between 2002 and 2022, helping spearhead a dramatic transformation in Indian women’s cricket from a wholly amateur affair to one where the leading players can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Growing up in a conservative Bengali family, Goswami had to fight to pursue her love of cricket at a time when there was no money involved, getting up at 4.30am to make five-hour round trips at the age of 15 just to reach training. But after making her debut for India against England, in January 2002, she never looked back. Her pace (up to 75mph at her peak), combined with the bounce she could extract from her 5ft 11in frame, proved a lethal combination. By 2008 she was the No 1 bowler in the world, and finished her career as the leading wicket-taker of all time.
Even so, her achievements went under the radar for the first two-thirds of her career. The turning point, she says, was the 2017 World Cup, in which India knocked out Australia in the semi-finals to ensure they faced hosts England in the final. Before that match, played in front of a sell-out crowd at Lord’s, Goswami was uncomfortably aware of the weight of the occasion: “I couldn’t sleep properly. I was feeling a lot of goose bumps, a lot of emotional turmoil. I was walking up and down in my room and trying to calm down. ‘Relax, enjoy, visualise bowling in front of a full house at Lord’s.’
“We lost the toss and England elected to bat. I said: ‘I’m getting the first over,’ so that I could settle myself down. I was super excited, it was all going according to our plan. For 90 overs we controlled the game.” But India fell agonisingly short, bowled out for 219 chasing 229, and the dream of a maiden World Cup title crumbled. Goswami describes it as heartbreaking.
Knowing what followed, though, she is now able to look back on the day with equanimity. “When we came back to India, we realised people had followed it, ball-by-ball. The amount of respect we got, from the prime minister of our country to normal people, everybody supported us. After that, women’s cricket grew – our girls got central contracts and became household names. And young girls in our country started dreaming.”
For Goswami, retirement came with great reluctance. When it is put to her that continuing to play until the age of 39 as a fast bowler is already above and beyond the call of duty, she interrupts – “James Anderson is still playing aged 41.” She concedes, though, that after sustaining an injury midway through the 2022 World Cup, her body was ready to quit: “I wanted to push myself but my body was not supporting me enough.”
If anyone doubted whether she had still got it, they should have been in the nets before the inaugural WPL final last year. Goswami decided she wanted one final chance to send down an over to Mumbai Indians head coach and longtime rival Charlotte Edwards. “I got her out 12 times internationally. I said to her: ‘Can I have the chance to get you out for a 13th time?’ She said: ‘No you can’t.’ Eventually she accepted – and now I have got her out 13 times.”
It is fitting that Goswami, a trailblazer in women’s cricket, gets to play a central part in the WPL – the latest milestone development in the sport. No one was surprised when a team with she and Edwards on the staff secured the first title. Their secret? “As a support staff, we tried to create a healthy atmosphere in the dressing room, make sure we enjoy each other’s success. You can’t control the cricket, but at least we can control the dressing room area.”
Mumbai Indians will be kicking off the second iteration of the WPL on Friday, a tournament opener that is a repeat of last year’s final against Delhi Capitals. Goswami is mentoring a team packed full of talent – Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur and Hayley Matthews are all returning to the squad, while they also picked up Shabnim Ismail in this season’s auction – and is confident of renewed success this time around. “We’re preparing well as a group,” she says. “We are ready.”
This is an extract from the Guardian’s weekly cricket email, The Spin. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
