Jemima Rodrigues has turned things around since being left out of India’s squad for the ODI World Cup in January this year.
Jemima Rodriguez has had a difficult start to the year as selectors overlooked her after a string of low scores at the Women’s ODI World Cup in New Zealand.
“Cricket is what I love and playing in the World Cup is a dream, I couldn’t do both.
“Especially last year, there were days when she was kicked out of the team that I don’t think she could have done without her family,” she added.
“I dropped out of the ODI World Cup. I went through a very bad stage mentally. Mr. Raman, you know me, you know how much I love cricket and how much it affects me. I knew I tried to fake it for her. I tried to be happy, like everything was going well. Outwardly, everything is happy and fine. But it hurt me. I haven’t slept well at home for weeks. I had a terrible dream and suddenly woke up in the middle of the night. Her first five seconds are fine. But suddenly these thoughts come to you. Is it the end of the world for me? Those were real thoughts. We can put them aside now, but at the time it was very real,” said Jemima.
“At some point, I confided in my parents. Instead, I said, “If you have to experience something, so be it.” But seeing your daughter go through something is 10,000 times worse. That’s when my healing began. So I took a break. I just spent time at home with my family, who I call my cousins. Being with my family helped me cope with my grief. My family is very important to me and a large part of my life is my family. Anyone who knows me knows me. Without her, I wouldn’t be here,” added Jemima.
“After returning to my normal headspace, I made a plan for how I would approach my days and weeks. At that point, I knew the domestic season would start in two months,” she said. I made a note of things to work on. I played at Azad Maidan with U19 and U23 boys. It gave me a lot of confidence. Afterwards, I came back and felt good,” she added.