Legendary cricketer Diana Edulji expresses happiness over India's historic win

Former India womenrsquos team captain Diana Edulji has said that she had to wait for 50 long for the lsquomost pleasing dayrsquo of her life but she has no complaints about itOn Sunday Edulji 69 was at the DY Patil Stadium to witness the Harmanpreet Kaurled Indian womenrsquos team beat South Africa by 52 runs in the final to celebrate their maiden World Cup triumphldquoIt was the most pleasing day of my life I was very proud and privileged to witness this victory of our girls I waited very long nearly 50 years now since I started playing cricket I have seen myself as a player as an administrator as an advisor now I wanted this trophy long long back In 2017 I thought we would get it when the Mithali Rajled team lost to England in the final at Lordrsquos We just missed out But that was the turning point I think for womenrsquos cricket to be noticed And everybody became aware of womenrsquos cricket because of the electronic media that showed the matches live Edulji told midday on MondayDiana Edulji PicAFPEdulji who represented the country in 20 Tests and 34 ODIs and led the country in the 1978 and 1993 World Cups reckoned that the three defeats against South Africa Australia and England at league stage turned out to be a good wakeup call for the hosts Edulji said ldquoAfter those three defeats the way the team has come back and played the semifinal and the final and even before that against New Zealand to qualify for the semifinal it was great I think those three defeats really affected the team and woke them up a little bit Irsquom glad and I had spoken to Harman captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti vicecaptain Mandhana before the NZ match In fact I told Smriti to please score a hundred for me and she did scored 109 vs NZ And Harman also before the final I told her that I want to see a World Cupwinning star on her jersey Itrsquos always with the men the World Cup stars that are there Now the women have it toordquo remarked Edulji who lavished praise on spinbowling allrounder Deepti Sharma for scoring 58 and claiming 539 She also praised attacking opener Shafali Verma for scoring 87 and claiming two crucial wicketsldquoIrsquom glad that Deepti is such a utility cricketer She totally deserved that player of the series award And Shafali came out of the blue like a wild card entry I have never seen her play such a innings before She batted with discipline which she doesnrsquot normally do as she tends to get carried away But here I could see the determination She pepped up And then of course her golden arm did the trickrdquo said EduljiEdulji who is currently guiding Mumbai Cricket Association as an advisor reckoned women can now take up cricket as a good career option ldquoI hope our domestic cricket improves The WPL is coming up and a lot of the girls who played this World Cup came out from the WPL So that should create more interest and ensure that womenrsquos cricket can be a great career option too with more money coming inrdquo Edulji signed off