Sania Mirza in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 27: Sania Mirza was in town, but the queen of the court wielded the microphone and not the racquet.

The tennis star was here today to speak on “Women in Sports – The Way Ahead”.

Talking about the challenges women face in sports and otherwise, Sania said the most important change required was in the attitude. “Both the attitude of people towards women and our own attitude towards ourselves and other women need to change. That is the first requisite for women in India to make the best of their talent,” she said.

Sania, India’s highest ranked tennis player ever in singles (her best being world No. 27), reminisced that as a kid, when she used to play tennis the whole day, her relatives would tell her parents that she would grow dark and then would not get a good partner for marriage when she grew up.

“They would say, ‘She is not going to play Wimbledon! Why are you letting her toil?’ In fact, women are not even considered to be serious when they say they wish to pursue sports as a career,” she said.

“I was lucky to have supportive parents,” she said, adding that every girl should be allowed to choose her career.

“If she wishes to make a career in athletics, she must do so,” she said. Sania was here with her parents Imran and Naseema Mirza.

The current world No. 9 in doubles tennis also said that women should not be just considered born to work in the kitchen. “I get inappropriate questions from many people. People ask me when would I have a baby! I have never seen my husband being asked that! They never ask men such questions!” said Sania, who is married to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik.

Cricketer-turned-bureaucrat C.T.M. Suguna, who is also a painter, photographer and dancer, also took part in the event.

“I used to play national-level cricket for Tamil Nadu. But we did not have any infrastructure then. Even now, it is strange that the Women’s Cricket Association of India is still not a part of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. I believe women sports administrators would help resolve the problems and people would be pleasantly surprised if they women were given a chance,” she said.