England’s tearaway pacer Issy Wong, who picked 15 wickets for Mumbai Indians to lift the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL), feels that players getting big paychecks and performing in front of large crowds is cool as she began playing for the love of the game and gets to do that all the time.
In the inaugural WPL Player Auction, Issy was picked by Mumbai for INR 30 lakh and lit up the tournament with her sensational hat-trick against UP Warriorz in the Eliminator. In the final, she picked three wickets to help Mumbai defeat Delhi Capitals to lift the trophy.
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“It’s the way the women’s game is moving forward and it’s just cool, isn’t it? We are talking about it like it’s this skull-crushing pressure but in the grand scheme of life, it’s not a bad problem to have. I always try to keep that perspective.”
“I was bringing my bin back in the other day — I don’t put them out, I bring them in — and my next-door neighbour was chatting to me as she and her kids had been watching the WPL.
“She said it must be hard with the pressure and so many people watching but I said I look at it as I get to do the thing that I love for a living, so there is not actually that much pressure at all.
“I started playing because I love it and now I get to do that all the time. How good is that!? As long as I keep looking at it like that, then fingers crossed it will be alright,” said Issy to Daggers and Lyds Podcast on Sky Sports.
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Before gaining success in the WPL, Issy was only named as a travelling reserve in England’s squad for the Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa in February, where the Heather Knight-led side reached the semifinals. She feels that not making it to the main squad motivated her to be better at her craft.
“When I got the call (about missing the T20 World Cup) I was devastated and I probably had half an hour off, ‘this is rubbish’ and after that, I was like, ‘Oh, I’d better go to training!’. I had a month or so where I could just work hard.”
“Not just work hard to bowl at (New Zealand’s) Sophie Devine or get (Australia’s) Alyssa Healy out. It was, work hard to make Issy Wong better. I was fresh (ahead of the WPL) and feel like it was an opportunity for me to say, ‘I’ve listened to your feedback, I am not disagreeing with it but this is what I’ve done about it’.”
“Before the auction, I was like, ‘Maybe I will get picked’ but then I thought, ‘Why would they want me if I haven’t been picked for the World Cup?’ but it did happen. I was quite aware I was a bit of a gamble, which gave me a push to say, ‘right, let’s put that last bit of hard work in and give Mumbai a thank you almost’.”
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