Diana Edulji was a left-arm spinner who played in India’s first women’s Test, captained the side from 1978 and took 63 Test wickets, still the most by an Indian woman. She spent three decades as a player and administrator with the Railways, pushed for better treatment of women cricketers long before it was fashionable, and in 2023 became the first Indian woman inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
Name: Diana Edulji | Born: 26 January 1956, Bombay (now Mumbai) | Sport: Cricket | Position: Slow left-arm orthodox bowler, right-handed lower-order batter
A railway colony childhood
Edulji grew up in a Parsi family in a railway colony in Bombay, where she first played cricket with a tennis ball among the boys. She was a good all-round sportswoman and reached junior national level in basketball and table tennis before choosing cricket. In 1971 she joined Albies, the first women’s cricket club in the city, and she sharpened her bowling at a camp run by the former India captain Lala Amarnath. Her method was classical: a smooth, unhurried action, flight and drift, and the patience to bowl long spells to a set field.
India’s first Test and the 1976 series
When India played their first official women’s Test, against West Indies in Bangalore on 31 October 1976, Edulji was in the side. The six-match series that followed was the making of her. She took 17 wickets, the second-highest tally on either side, and the series finished 1-1 with four matches drawn after India’s win in Patna and a West Indies victory later in the tour. On slow Indian pitches her accuracy made her very hard to score from, and she became the bowler India turned to whenever a match needed controlling.
Captain of India
Edulji was made captain in 1978 and went on to lead India in several spells over the years that followed. She played her first one-day international on 1 January 1978 against England, and over her career she appeared at three World Cups, captaining India at two of them. She was known as a forthright leader who argued for her players, and that reputation travelled with her. On India’s 1986 tour of England, as captain, she was refused entry to the pavilion at Lord’s. She suggested afterwards that MCC might rename itself MCP, a dig at what she saw as male chauvinism, and the line has stayed with her ever since.
Workload and wickets
Her numbers come from a period when India played few Tests, which makes them more striking. In 20 Tests she took 63 wickets at 25.77, with best figures of six for 64. She also holds the record for the most deliveries bowled by any woman in Test cricket, a measure of how much her captains and her team relied on her. In 34 one-day internationals she took 46 wickets at 16.84, with a best of four for 12. At the 1993 World Cup in England, her final tournament, she took 14 wickets, joint third in the competition. Her last Test came against Australia in February 1991 and her last ODI against Denmark in July 1993.
Railways and the fight for fair treatment
Edulji worked with Western Railway for most of her adult life, first as a player and then as an administrator. She campaigned there for equal treatment of women cricketers, and the Railways became the main employer of India’s leading players, giving them a steady income at a time when the sport itself paid very little. The effect has lasted: when she was honoured by the ICC, 12 players from India’s most recent World Cup squad had Railways connections. She retired from her railway post at the start of 2016.
Running the game
On 30 January 2017 the Supreme Court of India appointed Edulji to the panel set up to run the BCCI while the board’s reforms were carried out. She was the only cricketer and the only woman on that committee, and she used the role to argue for the women’s game and for players’ interests more widely. It was an unusual second act for a former captain, and it put a woman in one of the most senior positions in Indian cricket administration.
Honours
She received the Arjuna Award in 1983 and the Padma Shri in 2002. In 2023 she was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame, the first Indian woman to be so recognised, alongside Virender Sehwag and Aravinda de Silva in the same class.
Career record and honours
- Tests: 20 matches, 63 wickets at 25.77, best 6/64; 404 runs at 16.16
- One-day internationals: 34 matches, 46 wickets at 16.84, best 4/12; 211 runs at 8.79
- Most Test wickets by an Indian woman (63); most deliveries bowled by a woman in Test cricket
- Played in India’s first women’s Test, v West Indies, Bangalore, 1976; 17 wickets in that series
- India captain from 1978; led India at two of her three World Cups
- 14 wickets at the 1993 World Cup in England
- Arjuna Award: 1983
- Padma Shri: 2002
- Member of the Supreme Court-appointed panel to run the BCCI: 2017
- ICC Cricket Hall of Fame: 2023 (first Indian woman inducted)
