Shah of good old times

The new generation may not know Sudha Shah, but the girls who have trained under her for the Indian women’s team acknowledge her contribution to the national team as a coach and selector. The 58-year-old was as a player in the 1970s, she led both India and Tamil Nadu before her retirement and since then she has been associated with the national and state teams wearing many hats. 

The soft-spoken Sudha is known to be a tough task-master and a former captain and secretary of Women’s Cricket Association of India, Shubhangi Kulkarni, a former captain, reserves the best comments for her. “I have always been very confident of Shah’s knowledge of cricket and her ability to bring out the best in the team,” says Shubhangi. “When we were still playing I had seen her work with Tamil Nadu and the South Zone teams. I’ve always felt she’s the best person to bring out the best from a team, and apart from her knowledge as a player, this is the one thing you look for in a leader or a coach.” 

You speak to her and you hear stories about the pre-historic days of women’s cricket in India. “I started playing while in school… was always interested in cricket… used to play with colony boys. We formed a club and approached Sushil Haridas and LJ Edmunds, the Tamil Nadu Ranji players to coach us. We used to go and meet players’ parents to allow their daughters to play,” Shah recalls. 

That was a time they travelled in unreserved compartments, stayed in dormitories and ate any kind of food. In the first Nationals held in 1973, she says there were two and a half teams and then in the next Nationals held in the same year at Varanasi a lot more teams took part.Around 1975 and 1976, the women got more exposure hosting the U-25 Australian team and then toured Australia and New Zealand playing a Test at Perth and Dunedin. “We played a lot of international matches till 1986 and there was a gap of five years when there were no international matches.” 

Basically, the ladies played for the love of the game in the romantic era of cricket. “In fact, we used to sometimes pay out of our pockets to take part in invitation tournaments. Then we started getting Rs 100 per Test. State players didn’t get any remuneration. Canara Bank recruited women cricketers then. Shantha Rangaswamy (former Indian captain), myself and Kalpana joined the bank along with quite a few state players from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Railways then started recruiting while Air India gave jobs to a few,” says Shah. The conditions improved when WCAI came under the BCCI. Travel was upgraded to flights and the girls were put up in hotels. Ex-cricketers who played a minimum of 5 Tests started receiving pension and now the Grade system is introduced. 

Sudha, who has played 21 Tests and 13 ODIs for India, has seen players such as Jhulan Goswami and Thirush Kamini grow as professional stars in the current system. She reckons India are one of the favourites in the World T20 Championship next month and according to her two women, Mithali Raj (batting) and Shubhangi Kulkarni (spin) stand out in Indian cricket history.