Eternal admiration: Eden's tribute to Jhulan Goswami

Kolkata: As the clock struck 6.58pm on a misty winter evening near the Eden Gardens change rooms, a hush fell over the crowd as Jhulan Goswami took the stage. Overwhelmed with emotion, she struggled to find the words to express her gratitude.

The occasion she said later, had got to her. Which is saying a lot. No bowler has as many wickets as Goswami in international women’s one-dayers. She is the only one to have over 200 ODI dismissals in the history of the game. Before Ellyse Perry and Shabnim Ismail, she was the fastest bowler in women’s ODIs. Till it is held up in the cold light of the day, her career statistics seem like fiction. Twice, she has been the world’s No.1 ODI bowler. She has played World Cup finals, led India and got a guard of honour at Lord’s to end a 20-year international career. And she has played all forms for India. “I couldn’t do that,” said Sourav Ganguly speaking before her.

Yet, here she was lost for words, if only momentarily. That is what having a stand at Eden named after you can do to even the most battle-hardened pro, one who makes a living as coach and mentor to Bengal women’s team and the women’s teams of Trinbago Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians.

“The opportunity to train and then play at Eden was a dream. But nothing, absolutely nothing, matches this,” Goswami told HT afterwards. Cricket Associations of Bengal’s immortality ode to her and Indian Army martyr Colonel Neelakantan Jayachandran Nair of the 16 Maratha Light Infantry was not breaking news. But Goswami, 42, said she was yet to process it.

“I can feel it but it is difficult to articulate it,” said Goswami before requests for a selfie turned from trickle to torrent. “So many people to thank.” The names that came to her mind, in no particular order, were Kakoli di, an aspiring cricketer who would fetch her to Kolkata for training because she was too young to travel alone from Chakdaha, some 80km from the city, Swapan Sir (Swapan Sadhu) and her immediate family. Illness, having lost contact and a family bereavement on Monday meant none of the above could be present when Goswami became the only Indian woman cricketer to have a stand named in her honour.

Goswami said her journey from when the women’s game was not run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to this mirrors the growth and inclusivity of the sport, one that now has worldclass infrastructure, a franchise league with newly minted millionaire players and equal match fees for India’s men and women’s teams. Growth that was reflected in an anecdote shared by Ganguly. Keen on her daily dose of Bengali television soap, his mother, Ganguly said, agreed to his request to watch cricket on a Sunday evening. “Because I want to see Jhulan, she said.”

This was before Goswami said: “Our family was split among Sourav and Sachin favourites. I was a Sourav fan. And when he would get out cheaply, a lot of snide comments would come my way.” Now, Goswami and Ganguly are united in having a stand at an iconic cricket amphitheatre named after them.

Goswami, Ganguly said, is a player who comes only once in a generation. It was possibly the only time during the impromptu speech that he held back. “It is not just about the respect you got as a player, the respect that you get after your days as a player is just as important,” said Ganguly.

Goswami checks all of that; Bengal’s under-15 girls winning a BCCI tournament on Tuesday adding a sheen to the programme that was about their “Jhuli Di”. One that was a Chak De! moment for the “Chakdah Express”.