by Gulu Ezekiel
Thursday, January 10, 2002

Deep Dasgupta's maiden century in the first Test against England at Mohali last month threw his female coach, Suneeta Sharma, into the media spotlight. The joke doing the rounds is that Dasgupta needs another stint of coaching by Ms. Sharma to improve his shoddy wicketkeeping. But not many are aware that another member of the team at Mohali also has a female cricketing connection.

Allrounder Sanjay Bangar represents Railways in the national championships for the Ranji Trophy. And one of the Railways selectors is Diana Eduljee, a trailblazer for women's cricket in India.

Eduljee is one of the most famous names in the women's game with a world record bag of 120 wickets in Test matches with her left-arm spin, earning her the title of the "Bishan Bedi of women's cricket". She made her debut in India's inaugural series in 1975 and played till 1995 before she was unceremoniously dumped by the selectors. She retired from the international scene later that year.

Now 45, Eduljee is the only female selector of a men's first-class team in the cricket world and is obviously delighted with the performance of her Railways "boys" who made it to the Ranji Trophy final last year (they were beaten by Baroda) for only the second time in their history.

Unlike their male counterparts, the Railways' women's team have dominated cricket in the country and are the current national champions. Eduljee made her debut for Railways in 1968 as a teenager, was made captain in 1978 and led them to victory in the final last year.

She is a member of the minority Parsi community who pioneered cricket in India in the 19th century. Other prominent Parsis who have represented the country in cricket - way out of proportion to their tiny numbers - include Farokh Engineer, Rusi Modi and former captains Nari Contractor and Polly Umrigar. The last to play international cricket however was Ronnie Irani who made his debut for England in the 1996 series against India.

Eduljee has repeatedly called for the merging of the Women's Cricket Association of India and the BCCI, a trend followed all over the cricket world. "This is the only way women's cricket here can progress", she told me. She was true to her word in her own career – playing against the boys in Mumbai's Railway colony she was hit in the mouth and lost four of her front teeth.

She was rather more coy when I asked her to confirm a story that had done the rounds for years.

"Is it true that Sunil Gavaskar refused to face your bowling in the nets?" I asked Eduljee (the master batsman had a self-confessed weakness against left-arm spinners). Eduljee merely blushed, shook her head and moved away to pick up a cup of tea - perhaps a trifle diplomatically.

Gulu Ezekiel is a senior sports journalist and author based in New Delhi.

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