A couple of months ago, in August 2022, Parsi Times was delighted to report that our Parsi sports icons – the legendary former India women’s cricket captain – Diana Edulji and Athletics Federation of India (AFI) Chief – Adille Sumariwalla – were to be felicitated with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by the eminent Sports Journalists’ Association of Mumbai (SJAM), for their contribution to the development of sport, over an extended period of time.
On 13th October, 2022, in a glittering function held at the Garware Club House in Mumbai, the SJAM conferred the Lifetime Achievement Awards on Edulji and Sumariwalla, as also on India hockey captain – MM Somaya, shooter – Sheila Kanungo and veteran cricket administrator – Prof. Ratnakar Shetty. Senior journalist and writer, Khalid Ansari, who was the Chief Guest, was felicitated by the association for his contribution to Indian sports journalism.
The legends of Indian sports walked down memory lane, sharing stories and anecdotes from their playing days. Sumariwalla spoke about the challenges athletes faced in earlier times, compared to today’s athletes who have all the facilities available because of a proper structure in place. Edulji, whose glittering career as a cricketer extended to her being a member of the Supreme Court-nominated Committee of Administrators (CoA) to run the BCCI a few years ago, hoped that the Indian women’s team wins an ICC title soon. With the Indian women’s team storming into the final of the Asia Cup, Edulji looked confident of Harmanpreet Kaur’s team bringing the title home.
Adille Sumariwalla’s Lifetime Achievement plaque praised him handsomely in the following words: “Mr. Adille Sumariwalla is a multi-faceted personality, enjoying a successful career in sports and the corporate world. He represented India in the 1980 Olympic Games, the World University Games, the Asian Championships and the Asian Games.
He has won over 40 National Championship medals including 22 gold. An 11-time 100M National champion, Mr. Sumariwalla held the inter-State National record for 18 years. His 17 international medals include 2 golds at an international meet in Pakistan in 1979, 2 golds at the South Asian Games in 1984, 1 bronze at the Tokyo Asian Championships in 1979, 3 silvers at an Indo-Russian Test Championships in 1978 and nine at various meets in Europe in 1983.
Besides coaching several national and international athletes, Mr. Sumariwalla became the first Olympian and Arjuna awardee to be elected the president of any National Sporting Federation in India when he became the President of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) in 2012. It was during his tenure as AFl President that India won the first ever Olympic gold medal in athletics in the form of Neeraj Chopra at Tokyo last year.
He was also the Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent at the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea. Besides the Arjuna Award in 1985, Mr. Sumariwalla was also conferred the Shiv Chhatrapati Award for excellence in sports in 1980 and the Dadoji Konddeo Award for excellence in coaching in 1998.”
Diana Edulji’s plaque also shared her incredible and inspiring achievements, thus: “Ms. Diana Edulji has represented India in 20 Tests including four as captain, and 34 ODIs, 18 as skipper, between 1976 and 1993. She picked up 63 wickets in Tests, which is the third highest in the world. She also took 46 wickets in ODIs.
Ms. Edulji also turned out for Mumbai and Railways and played in three World Cups, two of them as captain.
One of her greatest moments was being part of the Indian women’s team that won its first-ever Test, against the West Indies at Patna in 1976.
Ms. Edulji’s contribution in that win were 3-24 with the ball and 18 & 20 not out with the bat. She holds the record for bowling the most number of balls in women’s Tests, 5,098-plus balls or roughly 850 overs.
Ms. Edulji was the only woman member of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators that ran the BCCI from January 2017 to October 2019.
She was honoured with the Shiv Chhatrapati Award in 1978, Arjuna Award in 1983, Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar in 1991 and Padma Shri in 2002.”
