Goswami still rankled by row that overshadowed India playing farewell

The legendary fast bowler remains angry about how England reacted to Deepti Sharma’s run-out of Charlie Dean at Lord’s

Lord’s, 24 September 2022: a day that was all about Jhulan Goswami – until it wasn’t. A final bow to her 20-year international career; a guard of honour by the England players as she walked out to bat for one final time; taking two wickets to complete an overall career-haul of 355.

Then, with England on the verge of an unlikely victory, Deepti Sharma ran out Charlie Dean backing up, and all hell broke loose.

A year and a half later Goswami is enjoying retirement: she spends time with her family, works for her state association in West Bengal, helping to bring through the next generation of female cricketers, and has an inaugural Women’s Premier League title under her belt in her capacity as bowling coach and mentor for the Mumbai Indians. But this giant of Indian women’s cricket is still visibly angry about the way her retirement match ended.

Not about Sharma’s actions, though. “Deepti took the right decision,” Goswami says. “It was absolutely within the law.” Her ire is reserved for what she sees as the hypocrisy of the predominantly English crowd, who ensured Goswami’s final exit from a cricket field took place with a chorus of boos ringing in her ears; and of the England players, who could not hide their disgust at the incident. Heather Knight went as far as to publicly accuse Sharma of lying about it.

“If you think in another way, in the 2019 [men’s] World Cup final, the ball hit Ben Stokes’ bat and went for a boundary,” Goswami says. “You could say they should not have taken those runs. Deepti acted within the law but the opposition team were not happy. But when it was a World Cup final, and the ball hits the bat and goes for a boundary, you are taking that four.

“You want to maintain the spirit of the game? Then do that, whether you are playing a World Cup final or just a bilateral series. You [England] should say: ‘It’s the spirit of the game, I’m not going to take that four.’ Or, you want to play within the law – then that [Stokes’ boundary] is within the law. But then you also must respect Deepti’s run out.

“I don’t think the discussion should continue,” she adds, emphatically.

Whether readers concur with Goswami or not, all can agree that there will for ever be disappointment in the way the narrative of that day shifted away from what should have been a focus on celebrating her incredible career. The fast bowler represented India on 284 occasions, between 2002 and 2022, helping spearhead a dramatic transformation in Indian women’s cricket from a wholly amateur affair to one where the leading women can now earn hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

Growing up in a conservative Bengali family, Goswami had to fight to pursue her love of cricket at a time when there was no money involved, getting up at 4.30am to make five-hour round trips at the age of 15 just to reach training. But after making her debut for India against England in January 2002, she never looked back: her extreme pace (up to 75mph at her peak), combined with the bounce she could extract from her 5ft 11in frame, proved a lethal combination. By 2008 she was the ICC’s No 1 ranked bowler in the world, and she finished her career as the sport’s leading wicket-taker of all time.

Even so, her achievements went under the radar for the first two-thirds of her career. The turning point, she says, was the 2017 World Cup, in which India famously knocked out Australia in the semi-finals to ensure they faced hosts England in the final. Ahead of that match, played in front of a sell-out crowd at Lord’s, Goswami was uncomfortably aware of the weight of the occasion: “I couldn’t sleep properly. I was feeling a lot of goosebumps, a lot of emotional turmoil. I was walking up and down in my room and trying to calm down. ‘Relax, enjoy, visualise bowling in front of a full house at Lord’s.’

“We lost the toss and England elected to bat. I said: ‘I’m getting the first over,’ so that I could settle myself down. I was super excited, it was all going according to our plan. For 90 overs we controlled the game.” But India fell agonisingly short, bowled out for 219 chasing 229, and the dream of a maiden World Cup title crumbled. Goswami describes it as “heartbreaking”.

Knowing what followed, though, she is now able to look back on the day with equanimity. “When we came back to India, we realised people had followed it, ball-by-ball. The amount of respect we got, from the prime minister of our country to normal people, everybody supported us. After that, women’s cricket grew – our girls got central contracts and became household names. And young girls in our country started dreaming.”

For Goswami, retirement came only with great reluctance. When the Spin tries to put to her that continuing to play until the age of 39 as a fast bowler is already above and beyond the call of duty, she interrupts – “James Anderson is still playing aged 41!” She concedes, though, that after sustaining an injury midway through the 2022 World Cup, her body was ready to quit: “I wanted to push myself but my body was not supporting me enough.”

If anyone doubted whether she had still got it, they should have been in the nets on the day of the inaugural WPL final last year: Goswami decided she wanted one final chance to send down an over to Mumbai Indians head coach and longtime rival Charlotte Edwards. “I got her out 12 times internationally. I said to her: ‘Can I have the chance to get you out for a 13th time?’ She said: ‘No you can’t!’ Eventually she accepted – and now I have got her out 13 times!”

It’s fitting that Goswami, a trailblazer in women’s cricket, gets to play a central part in the WPL – the latest milestone development in the sport. No one was surprised when a team with both she and Edwards on the staff secured the first title. Their secret? “As a support staff, we tried to create a healthy atmosphere in the dressing room, make sure we enjoy each other’s success. You can’t control the cricket, but at least we can control the dressing room area.”

Mumbai Indians will be kicking off the second iteration of the WPL on Friday 23 February, in a tournament opener that sees a repeat of last year’s final against Delhi Capitals. Goswami is mentoring a team packed full of talent – Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur and Hayley Matthews are all returning to the squad, while they also picked up Shabnim Ismail in this season’s auction – and is confident of renewed success this time around. “We’re preparing well as a group,” she says. “We are ready.”

Goswami calls for more women’s Tests

There’s a certain irony in the fact that women cricketers campaigned for years for five-day Tests due to innumerable draws, but that ever since the ECB and Cricket Australia finally conceded the point and agreed to a five-day event (played at Trent Bridge last June), we’ve had three further Tests, all scheduled for four days only, all of which have ended with positive results – two of them inside the first three days. The latest affair concluded on Saturday, with Australia defeating South Africa by an innings and 284 runs.

Goswami played 12 Tests – a number which many of the current Indian team might only dream of reaching, given the limited space in the calendar devoted to the format of late. She says that needs to change: whether the matches are four or five days in duration is less important than the need to play them regularly.

“Ask any cricketer and we will say we love Test matches – the contest, the ups and downs, the mental aspect, the physical stamina, everything. In my time, suddenly it was stopped from ICC. I don’t know why we did not play them.

“India should play at least two or three Test matches in a year, home or away. We must play that format. Let them feel how to bowl a longer spell, how to play session by session as a batter. Their white-ball game can improve.” Let’s hope the ICC and the boards are listening.

Quote of the week

“He said: ‘If there’s anything that I can remotely relate to in our cricketing careers, it was yesterday.’ It didn’t help one bit!” – Mitchell Starc’s attempt to comfort his wife, Alyssa Healy, after she followed in her husband’s footsteps by being dismissed for 99 in a Test, didn’t quite have the desired effect.

Still want more?

Jonny Bairstow is struggling for runs but still in line to make history in India, writes Taha Hashim.

Ali Martin explains why blaming Bazball for England’s losses ignores the excellence of India.

James Wallace argues that Ben Stokes’ side are the most exciting in a generation but actions need to speak louder than words after their collapse in the third Test.

And Vic Marks pays tribute to Mike Procter, the great South African all-rounder who has died aged 77.

Memory lane

Bad light stops play during the second Test between England and South Africa in Durban in December 2004, ruining the visitors’ chance of a ninth consecutive victory. Graeme Smith’s side were 290 for eight on the final day, chasing 378 before light got in the way, with AB de Villiers unbeaten on 52, his first half-century in Test cricket. The Proteas won the next Test before Matthew Hoggard took 12 wickets in the fourth, with a draw in the fifth giving England a 2-1 series victory. They were ready for the Ashes.

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