Veteran Australian women’s cricketer Nicole Bolton has made a startling revelation regarding former coach Cathryn Fitzpatrick when they worked together. The youngster disclosed that Fitzpatrick asked her if she wanted to be like Mithali Raj, who the latter accused of playing selfishly and for her records.

Mithali, the former Indian captain, is one of the legends of the women’s cricket history. Having debuted in 1999, the 41-year-old holds the record for most ODI runs with 7805 in 232 games and is also the most-capped player in the format.

Speaking in a video uploaded by cricket.com.au, Bolton revealed that Fitzpatrick called her into her office once and urged to play with a higher strike rate. The 35-year-old disclosed that she felt baffled at how Fitzpatrick saw her.

“I was playing for Australia and I was playing under Catherine Fitzpatrick for so long. I think for so long I was trying to impress her. I was just trying to get her to see me. I remember she called me in to her office for a chat. And she was like, ‘honestly, do you want to be the Mithali Raj of the Australian cricket team? And I was like, Mithali Raj? ‘Yeah, do you honestly want to strike at 50. It’s okay if you get a 100, but the team still loses or 100 off 150 balls? I was like, Woah, is this how Catherine Fitzpatrick sees me? I was like that’s not good at all.”