Shantha Rangaswamy - A cricketer of many firsts

First-ever captain of the India Women's cricket team, first one to hit a six, first one to notch up a Test century and now, Shantha Rangaswamy becomes the first recipient of the BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award for Women. It wouldn't be an understatement to say that women's cricket survived the initial resistance because of the 'pioneering batch' that fought against all odds in a patriarchal society to excel in the sport and lay the platform for the youth to follow. And at the forefront of it all was Shantha, a lanky allrounder, shrewd captain and above all a thorough teamwoman. But more than her numbers and records, it were her contributions off the field that shaped the course of women's cricket in India.

Shantha earned the first vehicle of her life - a Luna scooter - as a prize for an outstanding century in an unofficial Test against New Zealand. So when there were no balls for her team to practice, she did not hesitate for a moment to spend from her own pocket. When the government denied permission to her side for the 1988 World Cup in Australia, she reached out to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for the clearance. Serving as an administrator and chairwoman of selectors later, Shantha played a major hand in getting pension for the ladies and central contracts for the current generation. The list goes on.

We at Cricbuzz spoke to some of her peers, opponents, colleagues and juniors to get a glimpse of who and what Shantha Rangaswamy was, on and off the field.

Jhulan Goswami

I remember this one incident for which I will always be grateful to her. I haven't told this to anyone till date, but because of what she is going to achieve is amazing - I am very proud and I congratulate her for it - and I feel now is the time I must share how she helped me revive my career.

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I was in bad shape and there were a few niggles and frankly, I didn't bowl well throughout, particularly in that Bangladesh World Cup (2014 World T20). I was fairly disappointed with myself and could feel the negative vibes around. Suddenly I get this call from her one fine day. She asked, 'if I suggest you something, will you take that in a positive way?'.

She heard me out and asked 'what do you want', and I told her I wanted at least a week with a professional bowling coach. She spoke to the people here (at NCA) and took care of all the arrangements, my stay and everything. I had to go from here to Alur every day of my stay for my training with the coach, and she offered that If I wanted I could drive down, take her car! That was a very sweet gesture from her, to offer all the help when she knew something was wrong. Every cricketer goes through this rough patch and as a (former) player herself, she understood it very well.

Mamtha Maben (Former India cricketer)

On the field, I think she was this termagant personality, in terms of strength and when it comes to taking the opposition on. Time and again she would be the one who would win it for us. The day she couldn't, we would invariably go on to lose. She was my first inspiration, initially, and... I used to be in awe of her.

There is one particular incident that I would like to mention that is forever stuck in my memory. This was an inter-zonal match where she fractured her hand trying to take a sharp catch at forward short-leg. So her hand was in a cast. And the team management decided, since she was a vital cog (in the batting), to reduce her burden and didn't get her to bowl. She normally goes two-down, but we had decided to send her later, if need be. And in that innings, it was against Central Zone and we all had royally muffed it up, and eventually she had to go out to bat. Her hand was in a cast and she had no glove on. And she still went out and tried her best but unfortunately in the end she couldn't pull it through, but came back undefeated. She came back and said 'nothing doing, I am going to bat at my normal No. 4 position'. The next match against East Zone, she went and hit a fifty. She hit a six with a cast on her hand! Quite literally speaking, she single-handedly battled for us. That was her spirit. She would never give up, never ever. As long as Shantha was there in the centre, there was hope.

I remember once, this was an invitation tournament and we had gone to play somewhere in Indore. All of us were struggling, and I remember sitting in the dressing room and it was time for Shantha to go and someone seated next to me said, 'watch out, now rangarang karyakram is going to start!' Believe it or not, she went and thrashed all the bowlers all over the park. Even for South Zone, when the top-order used to literally play dot balls - and I was one of them, playing way too many dot balls - the moment Shantha went in, the game would change. I even remember playing a game against the mighty Indian Railways - and remember there used to be no fielding restrictions in those days. Shantha was in such a flurry that she had nine people on the boundary line and yet she would find the gaps! As long as she was at the wicket, you could not write anything off.

Off the field, she inspired me even more. We would travel unreserved most of the times, she would be the one calling somebody or the other and getting some EQs (emergency quota) released. Even when we had that World Cup, we could rope in so much of funds, just thanks to her and her name. We've literally paid from our pockets to play this game. There were times when I used to have tears in my eyes. We used to travel unreserved - invariably unreserved because we would get knocked out early - but Shantha would go and fight for us, make place for us. She would go and fight with the TTs and somehow get us five-six berths so that we could at least sit through - those used to be all long-distance journeys for us. In those days, it was all thanks to her that we all stuck together. Literally, she was the life of women's cricket.

Shubhangi Kulkarni (Member, ICC Women's Committee, BCCI Women's Committee)

Shantha was a little senior to me. I remember this first National Championships (in 1974) when I went to play, everybody would talk about her. She had a larger than life image. She was tall and lanky at that time, but her presence was easily identifiable.

She was the captain of the team and would always motivate players. She was a very good swing bowler and I distinctly remember her helping all the youngsters in the side and teaching them the skills. She wouldn't hesitate to help and teach the upcoming players.

What I remember best was, (Shantha) as a captain - and I was a spin bowler - showed a lot of confidence in me by giving me the new ball to bowl from one end, knowing the foreign team's difficulty in facing spin. That was the kind of confidence she had and she gave me. In fact, that's how we won the Patna Test against West Indies, which was the first time the Indian women's team had won a game on home soil. I remember she had identified the West Indies to be very uncomfortable playing spin, and she had the guts to take her chances and those risks and ensured that we won.

It was very difficult to keep Shantha out of action, whether it was administration of whether it was the game itself. As secretary, she would come up with ideas. She was the manager of the team, she was a selector for many years but with her it was never like her duty ended with just the selection part. She would always be there to help around, she had her ideas. Generally speaking too, everybody would seek suggestion and ideas from her and she would be happy to oblige.

It's fantastic that she's getting this Lifetime Achievement award. She rightly deserves this, and that too the first one. I am very happy for her.

Purnima Rau (National Coach)

I played (against) her when she was at the end of her career, but even then she packed a punch. I remember fielding at short mid-wicket and the ball used to whizz past me. I could actually hear the sound. That shows what a powerful batter she was. She had that field presence about her that sort of intimidated a lot of oppositions.

There was a time when people said I used to copy these two people - Shantha Rangaswamy and Diana Edulji - in my style of captaincy. I haven't played much with her at all but still people would equate our aggressive style of captaincy so many times. I have always felt that they gave me the biggest compliment of my life. As a youngster I've always felt that, its a huge compliment to be equated to her in terms of the way she played and her captaincy.

More than anything else, she influenced the course of women's cricket when she was the chairman of the selection committee. There was a season when I had not even played in the zonals but she had that vision and through her committee, she offered me the one-day captaincy against Australia. I don't know what she saw... I remember she called me for an interview and asked if Diana was in my side, how I would handle her. She had some academic questions for me at that time... Just imagine, a player who had not played any domestic match, was offered India captaincy and thereby things changed after that. We won that Youth series (against Australia). We went to New Zealand and won the Centenary Cup (1994) and put India on the global map. Just imagine her vision. She brought in split captaincy back then. (She's) sort of a trend-setter there too, you can say. See, the credit can go to us, the players and the captain, but behind the scenes there are so many decisions, the right decisions that people take which should be credited as much. Shantha has made few of them.

When Shantha was my coach, during the Youth series, I learnt a lot from her about how to talk to press, how to conduct meetings, how to strategise and all. It's a huge way in which my career had been influenced. I always look up to her. We've had that good camaraderie - we argue a lot, we discuss a lot. It's a very special bond between us.

Sudha Shah (South Zone selector)

She was very passionate towards the game. And the best thing I can remember is she playing with the fractured finger in Delhi. And then there was this one time when I wasn't well - I had 104 temperature - and I wanted to go in but the West Zone captain didn't allow me to retire. This was an inter-zonal match in Shimoga, way back in '80s or something like that. Shortly afterwards, I anyway got injured and had to go out and Shantha came out to bat. She played with so much vigour - just because they didn't allow me to retire hurt - she said she had to get back at them. And we did win the match eventually, I remember. But she's always been like that. She would always want to win and she would always give her best to win.

Apart from her own game, she was very encouraging with the other players also and very supportive. She used to look after us, if anybody had a problem, we could just walk up to her anytime and she would see to it that it is done. I remember she lost out on one series because she took up (an issue) and the association didn't quite like it and she was made to sit out for a game. We were back then fighting for our rights and she took up the matter and she got the axe after that. This was right at the beginning I think, junior days. She was disappointed, she didn't quite like it but she felt that she did what she thought was right. She took it positively, in that sense.

Hemlata Kala (Chairman of selectors)

I've unfortunately never played under her because I was very junior to her but her cricketing knowledge and thinking were very sharp, very positive. She's always been a very positive thinker and wanted the team to do really well. She would give youngsters a chance. She believed that the youngsters, if given the opportunity, will do well.

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