Mithali Raj suggests three aspects to give new direction to women’s cricket in India

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New Delhi: Team India proved many critics wrong with their ICC Women's World Cup 2017 performance, believes skipper Mithali Raj.

Mithali confessed that she was in tears almost right through last evening when the team reached the hotel after the loss to England in a nail-biting World Cup final on Sunday night.

"I just controlled myself at the ground from crying. Or else, it would have reflected on my teammates badly. The defeat takes time to sink in, having come so close to winning it," the 30-year-old told The Hindu.

"The loss is certainly heart-breaking. We failed to handle pressure of playing in a World Cup final, a factor which helped England win the trophy,” she reasoned out. “We shouldn’t have lost the last five wickets the way we did. It is a pity that the lower-order failed to come good," she said.

"This is exactly the reason I always feel that we should have a very good second-string team. The difference between India and other leading sides like England and Australia is that their fringe players take very little time to adapt to international standard whereas we take two to three years," Mithali said.

"The gap between domestic and international cricket is huge. It is important to bridge that one with more and more tournaments," she said.

Talking about the biggest positive from the ICC mega event, Mithali said,"The biggest positive for me is reaching the final itself. No one gave us a chance even to make it to World Cup itself when we went through the qualifiers in Colombo."

"But, the girls have put up a spirited performance to prove many critics wrong," she said.

Mithali even suggested three important aspects to give a new direction to women’s cricket in India.

"Telecast every match India plays to capture the imagination of the followers, market and branding the game in a more professional manner and have a League something like IPL which should encourage more girls to take up the game," she concluded.