'Shabaash Mithu': Mithali Raj and the metamorphosis of women’s cricket in India

Taapsee Pannu with state-level cricketers and co-actors in 'Shabaash Mithu'. The filmmakers cast professional cricketers in the film to get aspects of the play right.

To understand why Shabaash Mithu had to be made, one needs to comprehend the enormity of Mithali Raj’s legacy.

Raj is undoubtedly the greatest female batter India has produced, and arguably the best in history. She's scored almost 2,000 runs more than anyone else in Women’s ODIs; she remains the only woman to score seven consecutive ODI fifties; she set a world record individual score in Women’s Tests; she led India to three of their five Test wins, and she was the first Indian to score 2,000 T20 International runs.

And yet, despite the enormity of these achievements, this list does not come remotely close to summing up her contributions to Indian cricket.

Raj started playing international cricket in an era when the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI) – a group of well-meaning people whose resources or infrastructure were a fraction of what the BCCI had – were running things. The WCAI officials sometimes even paid for trips and other expenses out of their pockets, without expecting reimbursements.

The Indian international team, despite having incredibly talented individuals, were an amateur set up. Cricketers often travelled to matches in unreserved compartments in train, and were put up in dormitories with rudimentary facilities. On overseas tours, the cash-strapped WCAI sometimes put them up with local families.

This was when Raj took her initial steps towards being a cricketer. In the 1990s – her formative decade – India played eight Test matches and 26 ODIs. From end-1995 to Raj’s debut in mid-1999, they did not play any international cricket barring the 1997 Women’s World Cup on home soil.

Things would improve, but only later – after the BCCI’s acquisition of the WCAI in 2006. That would change things somewhat, though the gender gap was not addressed seriously until India reached the final of the 2017 World Cup, setting a new record for television audience for women’s cricket.

While scoring runs almost for fun, Raj took up causes off the field as well, insisting Indian cricketers be allowed to play in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) in Australia, requesting for BCCI central contracts and a Women’s IPL, and calling out blatant sexism from journalists in press conferences.

She succeeded on all three counts. In 2021/22, an unprecedented eight Indians played in the WBBL. The central contracts, while substantially less than their male counterparts (just like the per diem allowances for domestic matches), are finally in place. And there are calls for a WIPL by 2023.

In an interview, Srijit Mukherji, director of Shabaash Mithu, said that the movie, while being about Raj, is also about the metamorphosis of women’s cricket in India, not portraying merely their triumphs on the field but also the struggles off it.

Mukherji's favourite scene in the movie is one where a group of cricketers, led by Raj, has a face-off with the board administrators. The scene, where their identity is questioned, brought tears to several actors, some of whom are state-level cricketers. ‘This is exactly what we feel when we were undermined, when we played in empty stadiums, when we used to be discriminated against,’ they later told Mukherji.

What about the cricket? Technology has evolved since All Rounder (1984) or Awwal Number (1990). What had passed as authentic cricket scenes back then would be ripped apart by the audience in 2022. So the filmmakers cast professional cricketers in the film.

However, there was a problem. Taapsee Pannu, who plays Raj in the movie, was not a cricketer. Cricket was not even her sport of interest. She had to be coached extensively by Nooshin Al Khadeer, Raj’s former India teammate and a fine off-spinner herself (100 ODI wickets) – but that merely addressed the technical aspect.

Pannu and Nooshin Al Khadeer

For added authenticity, Mukherji insisted Pannu put in an effort to fall in love with the game, and Pannu, an absolute professional, took the advice seriously. On at least two occasions, she would continue to play cricket on the sets long after the pack-up call. Her director would describe her as ‘another convert’ to cricket.

Shabaash Mithu portrays how ‘an entire generation and a country woke up to the achievement of its women cricketers after 2017.’ At the centre of it is Raj, her ups and downs, her career, her cricketing achievements and personal relationships, with untold stories.

While Raj’s career has been followed closely since the 2017 World Cup, her formative years and early career seldom received coverage. Shabaash Mithu is likely to fill major gaps in the history of India Women. It is no ordinary history, for the movie is likely to be watched by the future superstars of ‘Women in Blue’, inside a theatre or during a television channel rerun or on an OTT platform.

Despite the limited coverage, Raj’s early career had inspired a generation of girls to take up cricket seriously, and consider a future in cricket. Shabaash Mithu may end up inspiring more young girls to take up cricket – or, generally, sport – professionally. And that, in India, is not a popular career choice even in 2022.