India’s fast bowling stalwart Jhulan Goswami wants more scientific research on the effects of menstrual cycles on female athletes, specifically in cricket where a player has to be on the field for six hours. Jhulan Goswami was in conversation with former India coach WV Raman on his Wednesdays with WV show on YouTube.
She said: “When I was young, I couldn’t even discuss this topic. I would just keep it to myself, not tell coaches, quietly fighting through it. People should research properly, lots of science is there, and if we can find a way to adjust during those menstrual cycles during competition.”
Goswami then talked about how menstruation affects a player in big tournaments as they can’t concentrate on the sport. “That’s the biggest challenging part for a woman athlete. If it [periods] came during competition time, it was a huge challenge to concentrate on your job – you have to be mentally very strong. At that time, it can happen that you aren’t able to concentrate more, deliver more – and people don’t realise that and start talking ‘arre yaar, isko kya ho gaya? But people don’t know the background story. This is the lot of all women athletes around the world and that’s why they are special,” Goswami told Raman.
Jhulan Goswami then addressed how the hormonal changes have an impact on female athletes and the challenge it poses as it becomes extremely difficult to play for six hours during this period. She said, “It’s one thing going through the aches and pains of the body but going through that kind of pain and changes in the body is challenging.”
“During match days it’s tough, it takes a lot of courage to come out of that situation and play for 6 hours on a cricket field is a huge task. You have to give a lot of credit to all the girls going through those challenges.”
“You want to be in a room, getting rest but we can’t do that. We can’t be in bed. It’s an important match, we have to be out there for 6 hours. We can’t give excuses and sit. It’s normal – we accept that, and we prepare that way. You can’t give excuses for that and that’s the beauty for our women athletes,” Jhulan said.
