Jemimah believes her and Delhi Capitals’ time is now in this WPL as they hope fourth time is the charm for them.
According to Jemimah Rodrigues’ admission, silence spoke on March 15 of last year. There was little opportunity for free speech in the Delhi Capitals’ dressing room following their third straight defeat in the Women’s Premier League final.
Even though they would have been devastated, as responsible leaders, captain Meg Lanning and coach Jonathan Batty took it upon themselves to break the stillness in the room and raise the squad out of its collective and individual emotional low.
The memory of that evening is still fresh for Rodrigues. “Everyone was really sad,” she confesses. “Nobody spoke as much. But I think everyone just felt like the silence spoke a lot that day, you know? It still hurts and we can’t believe it’s happened time and time again with us.”
“They said that we are so incredibly proud of this team,” Rodrigues recalls. “[They added] ‘These are some of the best humans you’ll ever meet and some of the finest cricketers. We’ve played extraordinary cricket and one day doesn’t define us. Things will change’.”
The Delhi Capitals had to let go of their captain, who had led the team to the final in each of the previous three WPL seasons, because to the plenty of wealth and retention restrictions. Now that they have given the reins to the 25-year-old Rodrigues, she is in the jealous position of leading the most dominant and reliable squad in the WPL to its first-ever championship.
In addition to being the youngest of the competition’s five captains this season, she will also have the least amount of elite-level captaincy experience (apart from domestic cricket). She will rely on her limited experience making decisions for the national team in her quest for DC’s first championship, like taking the onus of ensuring the right fielder is in the right position, and at right angles.
“Meg has been one of the greatest captains I’ve ever played under,” Rodrigues said on Tuesday. “What she’s done for DC has just been phenomenal. I couldn’t ask for a better person to learn from. Last year, I did pick her brains a little bit on captaincy. I did speak to her about how she got captaincy at a really young age, how she dealt with it, and what is important for captaincy. She has passed on a lot of her experience to me.”
“As a captain, if I start panicking there, my team’s going to panic. But if I stay calm, my team’s going to stay calm.”
Although the Delhi Capitals have not yet won the WPL, the standard has been established. Before asserting that DC has been the best team in the three years of this competition, Rodrigues shows no modesty. However, he is confident in his ability to take on the duty of actually advancing the squad.
“We’ve been the best team in the tournament throughout the last three years. and yeah, things didn’t go well in the finals of all three years. But you know, the thing about time is, it changes. And you never know, things just fall into place. We saw it happen with us in the World Cup till then.
“Everyone used to call us – the Indian women’s team – chokers. But things changed. And I don’t think we changed anything much. We just kept working hard and believing. And that’s what DC has also done consistently. We keep believing that our time is now.”