New Delhi: Former Australian cricketer Lisa Sthalekar was inducted into the International Cricket Council’s Hall of Fame last week, for a stellar cricketing career spanning multiple World Cups. She became the ninth woman cricketer — and the fifth from Australia — to receive the honour.
Indian-born Sthalekar had begun her journey from an orphanage in Pune.
She was just three weeks old when Haren and Sue Sthalekar adopted her from Shreevatsa — an orphanage attached to Pune’s famous Sassoon Hospital functioning since 1867. Established in 1973, Shreevatsa is involved in developing rehabilitation programmes for orphaned children.
Sthalekar, who also served as the Australian team’s captain, credits her father for introducing her to the game.
Mumbai-born Haren Sthalekar had a deep interest in the game of cricket, she said.
“My father loved the game and I spent a fair bit of them with him in the backyard. I would’ve been about 8-9 when I fell in love with the game,” she told ThePrint.
Her career spanned four World Cup wins, eight Test matches, 125 one-day internationals and 54 internationals in the 20-over format.
She continues her work off the field as well, and has ventured into cricketing commentary, coaching and has been an administrator in various cricketing associations.
Cricketing career
Sthalekar made her Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) debut in the late 1990s, starting out as a specialist bowler. By the early 2000s, she became a frontline batswoman as well.
She made her Test debut in 2003 and played her first T20 international in 2005. She was also the first woman cricketer to make 1,000 runs and take 100 wickets in women’s ODIs.
“I was part of a team that had many players that I looked up to,” Sthalekar told ThePrint.
Sthalekar set several milestones off the field as well. She was the first woman to be on the Australian Cricketers’ Association board and the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations.
On the ICC’s decision to honour her, she said, “I was surprised and I felt that I was certainly still quite young having retired only a few years ago. I felt that there are probably other female players who are more deserving of this but obviously feel very humbled.”
She added, “I hope that after the pandemic the level of women’s cricket soars to new heights.”
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