Exit Sana Mir

A glittering career comes to an end. Sana Mir, a former captain of Pakistan’s women cricket team, hanged up her boots last Saturday after a successful career spanning 15 years during which she played 226 international matches — 120 ODIs and 106 T20s. She led Pakistan in 137 games, including those played as part of two ODI World Cups and five T20 World Cups. Mir has been a part of great success stories for women’s cricket. She led Pakistan to two Asiad golds in 2010 and 2014. The former skipper remains the highest wicket-taking off-spinner among international women cricketers. She is the only Pakistani woman to have occupied the number one spot, in the year 2018. The 36-year-old is among a very few women cricketers to have taken 100 wickets and scored 1,000 runs in ODIs.

Mir is no stranger to awards either, having been decorated with the Pakistani medal of excellence known as Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, besides winning the People’s Choice Award at the Pakistan Sports Awards. A genuine role model for women, Mir was also recognised by the Asia Society last year as an inspiring agent of change working to building a better world. She was honoured alongside other inspiring global leaders Yuriko Koike, Japan’s first female defence minister; China’s Jane Jie Sun, the leader of a $25 billion worth of travel company where women form half the workforce; and Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi of the UAE, a pioneer in the world of art who has tirelessly promoted greater cultural understanding and exchange in the Middle East and around the world.

As described by the PCB chief executive, Mir has been “the face of Pakistan women’s cricket for many years and a real source of inspiration for the young generation of women cricketers”. In a country where there is absence of proper sporting infrastructure and where women’s participation in sports is stigmatised, Mir’s achievement deserves a lot of praise.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2020.

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