The 127 star of Jemimah Rodrigues that helped India to run down a world record of 339-run target set by Australia in the semi-final of the Women world cup was a game-changer in a number of ways. The inning provided India with the hope that anything could happen. The Harmanpreet Kaur team eventually became the winners of the Women World Cup beating the South Africa in the final. Although Jemimah is the hero of the country nowadays, a year ago, the situation was different because she was involved in the scandal.
In 2024, Jemimah Rodrigues was seen as her club, Khar Gymkhana, terminate her membership following allegations against her father, Ivan Rodrigues, of unlawfully using the club facilities to conduct illegal meetings about religion. Shiv Malhotra who is a member of Khar gymkhana managing committee says that Ivan Rodrigues had been hiring the Presidential Hall at reduced rates in the concession of Jemimah Rodrigues’ membership. These were supposedly bookings in order to organize religious events, which are a breach of the by-laws of the Gymkhana in Article 4.
In an interview, Jemimiah Rodrigues is now silent no longer on the matter. “To tell you the truth, sir, I can remember when that occurred. The first thing was easy since I had to face it, but when my parents were dragged into a situation where we were not to blame, it hurt. We did everything there, as per the rules and regulations, and we had evidence of that. However, the accusations that were leveled against me and my family had a very big impact on us since we had not committed anything inappropriate” as Jemimah narrated.
“That was immediately after the world cup in Dubai where we had not performed well. Personally, I had not been performing as I expected, and was already in a bad mood. But all at once I began to see the news, messages, and people telling horrible things about me – and even worse, about my family and my church. That broke me. I can recall my brother calling me and I simply burst into tears. I didn’t know what to do. I was like a kick on another, first my play, then they persecuted me claiming that my family was false.”
Following the charge, father of the girl, Jemimah, Ivan Rodrigues highlighted last year that the meetings followed the book of Khar Gymkhana soundly and were not in any way related with conversions contrary to some reports.
Following the recent and misplaced reports leaving the rounds in the media, we would wish to record a few facts. We had availed the facilities of the Khar gymkhana on several occasions dating back to a year since April 2023 on the purpose of prayer sessions. This was however done in complete repercussion to the procedures that Khar Gymkhana has, and with full knowledge of the office bearers, he said.
The prayer meetings were free to everybody and were by no means, conversion meetings as they were mistakenly outlined in the media articles. When we were informed to cease the holding the prayer meetings we acquiesced with the position of the Gymkhana, and acquiesced without more delay.
Jemimah Rodrigues: ‘God gave us double honour for every bit of shame’
Jemimah Rodrigues also spoke of how the scandal affected her emotionally and her family, and said that it was one of the hardest experiences she and her family had ever been through. Pouring her heart into it, she explained that the false allegations were accompanied by her already dwindling performance after the world cup.
“To tell the truth I recall the time that it happened. One thing was when I had to confront it but when I saw my parents dragged into it over something that we did not do then it really hurt me. We had evidence of that since everything we did at that moment was done according to the rules and regulations. However, the charges leveled against me and my family had a great impact on us as we had committed no sin” as Jemimah said in an interview.
Throughout the quarrel, the 25-year old star batter discussed the way the family belief system of her family embraced forgiveness and faith instead of combat. She made known that they opted to keep quiet and trust God instead of responding to the accusations, which she believes was paid off a year after with the win against the World Cup in India and her redemption knock.
But we all, as a family, sat there and said, it is not our fight. We realized that we were doing the right thing and we knew we had not done anything bad. God is our witness. We resolved not to say anything therefore not to show off or fight. We decided to forgive those that wronged us– since that is what Jesus asked us, to forgive, even those who offend us.
And honestly I have seen how God turned it all round. Precisely a year later was that knock of semi-final in New Zealand and the achievement of the world cup by India. It was a little about the same last year that we were hurting, and this year God took us up, and did His children twice as much honour as they did me all of shame I had, Jemimah said.
Jemimah Rodrigues had an impressive average of 58.40 in the recently-concluded Women ODI world cup scoring 292 runs. Certainly one of the greatest hits in the history of the tournament is her 127 against Australia in the semifinal that enabled India in vanquishing the previous champions in a crusading 339-run pursuit.
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