Celebrating Sana Mir: A wonderful ambassador of the game
Having started out as a young girl playing on the streets of Rawalpindi, Mir has gone on to become one of the stalwarts of the women's game. With her retirement, she leaves behind a legacy of achievements on and off the field.
Advocate for girls' cricket
Mir has never shied away from stressing on the importance of girls taking up the game of bat and ball. Even when she rose to No.1 on the MRF Tyres ICC Women's ODI Rankings for bowlers, she hoped it would serve as a message for aspiring cricketers and administrators back home.
"It will open opportunities for girls back home, breaking the barriers in their own mind that they can be the best in the world," she told the ICC in a chat. "And, hopefully it will end the debate about whether we should invest in women in sports – because they say 'they don't give results, they aren't good enough'. I would love to end that debate."
"When I started in 2005, people would ask me why I’m doing this, [and tell me] it's not a women's game," Mir said when she won the Asia Game Changer Award last year*.*
Her own feats, she hoped, would help answer that question for the future generation of players: "If I achieve this No.1 ranking, any girl in Pakistan who puts hard work in it and [is] true to the game can do that."
Several firsts for Pakistan
Having made her debut back in 2005, Mir is Pakistan's most-capped female cricketer, and has led them in more matches than anyone else. She marked her 100th ODI – the first woman from her country to get to that landmark – with a fifty, in the 2017 ICC Women's World Cup match against New Zealand.
She will go down as one of the leading spinners of the game. With 151 wickets, she is joint-fourth on the list of top wicket-takers in ODIs. With her 147th wicket in her 118th game, she could stake claim to be the most prolific spinner in the women's game (West Indies' Anisa Mohammed has since equalled her wickets tally).
She was the first woman from Pakistan to reach 100 wickets, achieving the feat during their game against Bangladesh in the 2017 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier. At the time, she was also only the sixth to achieve the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in the format.
Pakistan Women's Captain Sana Mir created history at the #WWC17 Qualifier by becoming the first ever bowler from Pakistan to take 100 ODI Wickets.
Having started out as a pacer before a stress fracture forced a switch to off-spin, Mir is seen by her contemporaries as a clever bowler.
Her tally includes one five-for, and 11 four-wicket hauls across formats.