New Delhi, March 18 (IANS) India’s vice captain Smriti Mandhana celebrated a remarkable year after being honoured with the Best International Cricketer (Women) award at the BCCI Naman Awards. The left-handed batter reflected on both her individual contributions and the broader success of Indian cricket, particularly the Women’s ODI World Cup victory.

“It's been a great year. Again, I can't really mention a lot about my own performance because of the way we played the World Cup and winning the World Cup, that was pretty special. But for me individually as well, it was a great year in terms of doing what I could for the team and I'm happy that I could contribute to that,” Mandhana said in a BCCI video.

The opening batter highlighted the significance of India’s resurgence on the global stage across men's and women’s cricket, stating, “As I mentioned in the speech, four World Cups and one Champions Trophy, that's pretty amazing. And for Indian cricket, we had a few years where there was no World Cup, and a lot of people had a lot of things to say. But to come back in the last two years and doing what the Indian cricket has done, it's just amazing. And just to be part of the evening and celebrating all the teams, it's just amazing.”

Mandhana also talked about how important it was to be ready and have support systems in place that helped India win. She praised Jay Shah, the former BCCI secretary and current ICC chief, for all the work he did to help women's cricket grow.

“If you want to do something special, you want to go on to win the World Cup. It doesn't just happen in that World Cup. The preparation has to start. And for us, to be fair, Jay (Shah) sir has been just amazing in the last three years, four years from the time he's come and he's got WPL. WPL has really changed the way women's cricket has been played. And again, an equal pick in terms of the match fees. And, smaller things, more than all those things.”

She further acknowledged the role of infrastructure and support staff in fostering a winning environment. “Just the kind of support staff was provided, the kind of facilities which were provided, whatever was asked was given. So when you do those sort of things, those things right, the result comes. And the 19 women's winning the World Cup and as well as WPL creating stars and then us going on to win the World Cup. That's just the start of something really great,” Mandhana said.

--IANS

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