Jemimah Rodrigues interview: Meet the Instagram, Twitter and Northern Superchargers’ cricketing sensation

A more modest but no less encouraging 5,000 pairs of eyes every time she steps out into the middle at Headingley for the Northern Superchargers in The Hundred tournament.

Add to that a television audience averaging just under one million to watch those matches here in the United Kingdom; then times that by a couple of dozen or so watching on from her home country of India.

Rodriques, at the tender age of 20, is fast becoming an international superstar. And she courts it, through her explosive batting and her performances on social media, where she can often be found singing to her legion of followers or playing the guitar.

But Rodrigues knows a balance needs to be struck.

“It’s important to understand you can use social media for a variety of reasons, you can use it to inspire but, for me, I just want to be me, and show something else about me,” says Rodrigues.

“Life is too short not to enjoy it, that’s the basic idea. When I’m at a cricket ground I’m there and I’m focused, but when I’m outside cricket I try to enjoy life and that’s what I try to see myself as.

“This is a sport that is intense and one that we love but it’s important to have a balance. You cannot be serious and focused all the time, you have to switch off.”

When the time comes to be serious and focused, there are few better in the women’s Hundred competition than Rodrigues.

In five matches she has scored 196 runs, highlighted by a blistering 92 in the opening Superchargers match three weeks ago.

Kevin Pietersen, himself known for his explosive batting, tweeted that Rodrigues was his ‘favourite player’ after watching her batting that afternoon at Headingley.

The fan club is growing and Rodrigues is becoming an idol not just in her native India but also in the UK, and right here in Yorkshire.

It would be simplistic to say she is an inspiration to young Indian girls who live in the county and can go and watch her play, but Rodrigues puts no boundaries on the demographics of who might be enchanted by her abilities.

“Not just in Yorkshire, since the start of the Hundred we’ve been up and down the country, everywhere you see a lot of crowds,” she tells The Yorkshire Post.

“What makes me happy is that you see a lot of tiny girls and boys with smiles on their faces.

“That’s so nice for me. I remember when my dad took us to watch games, that’s when the dream started for me about wanting to play for India, it all starts with that.

“To see these kids coming is great – and you never know, we might see them again down the years when I get very old, they come up to us and might say I came to your game at Headingley. What a moment that would be, to inspire so many would be nice.”

Rodrigues might just be the face that transforms women’s cricket. She certainly has the talent, and there has never been a bigger shop window for the women’s game than The Hundred.

Next year she hopes to represent India – whom she has played for since 2018 – when cricket enters the Commonwealth Games programme in Birmingham. The International Cricket Council is also lobbying for the sport’s inclusion in the Olympics by 2028.

“I think women’s cricket has kicked on, so many are coming to watch it,” she beams. “Men’s cricket is fine, but so many are coming to watch the girls over here and I think that’s really nice.”

India won only one Olympic gold in Tokyo, Neeraj Chopra in the javelin, and he was treated to a hero’s welcome on his return.

Rodrigues’s status grows every time she returns home to Mumbai.

“Many more people are recognising me but that brings added responsibility, that I set the right example, and also motivate the younger generation of women who are watching, to go out there and work hard and do your best.”

Rodrigues is a Supercharger because she was a Yorkshire Diamonds player first.

She came over in 2019 when the crowds could be counted in dozens not thousands.

“Diamonds said they’d love to have me and I was happy to come and it just so happened that I liked this team, and I felt very comfortable,” says Rodrigues, who is thriving off being told by the Superchargers coaches to go out and express herself.

“It was important for me to get exposure of playing in England.

“I love batting in England, you need to adapt to the different situations, every ground has different conditions. Some wickets are fast, some wickets are slow, that’s what brings me back here, being able to work on that.

“I have always been made to feel accepted and loved in this team and they let me do what I want to do, which is why I love it.

“Life here is a little bit calmer than in India! Life is so fast in Mumbai.

“It’s nice to come here and go for a walk, the fresh air. Even if it is a bit colder.”

And even if more people are recognising her.