Born on January 26th 1956 in Bombay, Maharashtra, former Test and ODI captain of India, Diana Edulji was a keen player of many sports as a youngster but eventually cricket took hold.
The earliest recorded match for Diana is in 1972/3 in the semi-final of the Senior National Women’s Cricket Championship. And what a match it was! Her slow left arm bowling took 4-15 in the first innings and 5-7 in the second, helping Bombay to defeat Uttar Pradesh and make the final. Playing alongside her sister Behroze, Diana helped bowl Bombay to victory. This seventeen year old could play.
In 1975 Diana was selected in what should have been her first Test against a touring Australian team. The series was downgraded on account of Australia sending a youth team, but in what was her debut First Class match Diana sent shockwaves through the visitors, taking 6-40 from 36.2 overs and then top scoring for India with 48 not out, batting at number nine.
New Zealand tours in 1975/6 and again the five match series is “unofficial”. Again Edulji stars with the ball. That’s eight Test matches that not been recognised by officialdom. In 1976/7 both Edulji sisters make their Test debut, against the visiting West Indies team. There were six Test in total. Diana took 17 wickets.
When New Zealand toured India in 1984/5, Diana became captain of the team, becoming only the third captain of India’s Test side. She would lead the team in four matches. In twenty Test matches, Diana has bowled the most number of deliveries – 5188 – and sits third on the all-time wicket takers list with 63, behind Betty Wilson and Mary Duggan.
Diana Edulji was the first player to lead India onto the ODI arena, in no less than the World Cup, at home in 1977/8. The first match was at Eden Park Calcutta. What a proud moment that must have been for Diana and her team. She played in three World Cups and her final ODI was against Denmark at the World Cup in England in 1993. In her 34 ODIs Diana collected 46 wickets at 16.84 with a best of 4-12.
Post retirement Diana has continued to work for women’s cricket in India in many different roles, including an appointment to the Committee of Administrators (CoA), which looked after the functioning of the BCCI in 2017. She was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1983, and the Padma Shri in 2002.