The Indian women’s cricket team won their first world cup earlier this month. Vice captain Smriti Mandhana was quoted saying, “During the last world cup, we had talks with Jhulan (Goswami) didi, that I want to win that world cup for her – we could not do that, then we told, the night before the Lord’s match which she retired – we will win it for her, so this is for Jhulan didi”. After the win, the team did a lap of honour for the crowd where they met Jhulan, Mithali Raj and Anjum Chopra and included all three legends in their celebrations, with the trio being given the opportunity by the victorious team to hold the trophy.

Remind her about it and Jhulan tells us, “The girls made every Indian feel that we were part of the winning moment, it was a proud and exciting moment. I have shared the dressing room with them, we have had ups and downs together. Not just Smriti, even Jemimah (Rodrigues ) , Harman (Harmanpreet Kaur ) and the others , I have a special bond with all of them. We came close to winning the world cup twice in the past but this time they made the win a reality. A promise that they kept.”

She recalls when she started playing cricket, even her own family couldn’t understand why she would make cricket her profession. She says, “I would play cricket in the backyard with my cousins and fell in love with the game. Back then there was no social media or fan following for women’s cricket. We only got live coverage of our matches once a year. Coming from a village near Kolkata, I would travel by the local train and remember people asking stupid questions to mock me like ‘Do women play underarm cricket? My family too couldn’t understand my passion for the game when I started out but they came around later. We had no sponsors but what kept me going was the country’s name on my jersey. Things changed once BCCI took over.”

What has also been making news is the film Chakda ’Xpress, the biopic of Jhulan starring Anushka Sharma. Filming began around June 2022 and reportedly wrapped in December 2022.The project was initially slated for release on a streaming platform but reportedly got delayed because of rights and distribution conflicts between the producers and OTT platform. Post the Indian women’s cricket squad’s historic win, recent reports stated the makers of Chakda Xpress have written to the top executives of the streaming platforms, urging them to release their movie. But Jhulan dismisses the news saying. “I am not aware of any such update. Let’s hope for the best.”

The cricket veteran also recently met Salman Khan on his reality show where he congratulated all the women who contributed to the team’s success. “It was really nice coming from him. All the hard work put in by our seniors as well as the current team is bearing fruit now.”