Former India Women's Team Captain Mithali Raj Meets BJP National President JP Nadda

Former Indian women’s cricket team captain Mithali Raj on Saturday met BJP President JP Nadda in Hyderabad. Earlier in the month of June, the legendary cricketer announced her retirement from the game. She ended her career as the highest run-scorer in Women’s ODIs.

According to an IANS report, the Bharatiya Janta Party is looking to expand its base in Telugu states. As a part of these efforts, party president Nadda met Mithali Raj. It has also been learned that the former is also scheduled to meet actor Nithin before leaving for Hanamkonda to address a public meeting to mark the culmination of the third phase of Praja Sangram Yatra of party’s state president Bandi Sanjay.

Mithali, who hails from Hyderabad, is one of the prominent faces in the state of Telangana. The former cricketer represented India in 232 One Day Internationals, scoring 7805 runs at a staggering average of 50.68. She played 12 Tests and 89 T20Is for the country and amassed 699 and 2364 runs respectively.

After drawing curtains on her career, she spoke about her future plans in an exclusive conversation with News18 Cricketnext.

“I have not given it a serious thought. Commentary offers came along even when I was an active player. Administration is something I am keen on. Being in the fraternity for long, I understand what the team requires, what the players want. I can use my experience there. Mentoring is another option. Let’s see what opens up for me. Right now, I am taking some time off. I want to get off the pedestal of a player, which is important when you get into another role,” she told News 18 Cricketnext.

Despite scoring thousands of runs in her illustrious career, Mithali is not yet possessive about her bats. Instead of keeping them as a possession, she has given them to her juniors.

“I have already started to distribute most of them. I am not much into keeping things. Maybe a few bats I keep with me, the bat with which I scored 214 in a Test, the bat with which I reached 6,000 ODI runs. I am someone who gives away things. I am not much attached to my bats. I have gone through phases where I have played with one bat for one year. If anyone is in need of a bat, why not help them? Some youngsters say, ‘Didi, I scored runs with your bat’. I say, ‘bat is the same, your game is good’. They feel there is some magic in the bat,” Mithali had said.

Get the latest Cricket News, Schedule and Cricket Live Scores here