Winifred Duraisingam

Winifred Anne Duraisingam (born 6 April 1993) is a Malaysian cricketer and the current captain of the women's national cricket team. A right-handed all-rounder, she opens the batting, and is also an opening medium pace bowler.

Early life Duraisingam started playing cricket when she was eight years old, in the backyard of her home and in the nearby streets. Her brother, Derek, played street cricket with other boys. One day, she asked them whether she could join in and bat. They refused, because she was a small girl, and they were scared she would get hurt. Her uncle, David, then offered to teach her how to bowl. Although she accepted that offer, she also considered batting to be more appealing. He therefore suggested a rule that anyone taking a wicket would be next to bat.

With the benefit of the bowling tuition, and practice, Duraisingam eventually renewed her request to join in with the street cricket. Surprised and impressed by her action and pace, the boys had no option but to relent. After the match, Durairatnam approached her uncle and asked who was the "small boy" who had bowled against him. Her uncle replied, "that's my niece". Duraisingam was then invited to participate in a selection process for the national team.

Domestic career In 2014, Duraisingam played a season of club cricket in Adelaide, Australia. The following April, she played in the 4th Championship, for the same team (rebadged as the Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia team). On 29 April 2019, in her team's match against Negeri Sembilan, she took 4/3, to help the team to victory by nine wickets.

In December 2019/January 2020, Duraisingam led the Northern Queens team to victory in the Malaysian Super Women League (MSWL) tournament. In particular, she scored 61 runs, in an innings she considers to be her best ever, in the final against Eastern Lionesses. In mid-2010, she was appointed as the U-19 captain. The other teams competing in the series were the national teams from Tanzania and Thailand, and a team representing the Sri Lanka Army. In the match against Sri Lanka Army, Duraisingam top scored with 36, but Sri Lanka Army won by seven wickets. In the match against Tanzania, which Malaysia won, she top scored with 45*. Malaysia finished third in the series, which was won by Sri Lanka Army.

In August 2017, Duraisingam captained Malaysia in the Women's twenty20 tournament at the 2017 Southeast Asian Games. During the tournament, Duraisingam batted at number three in the batting order, and top-scored in consecutive games, with 25* against Singapore and 23* against Thailand. The match was also Malaysia's first ever WT20I. Duraisingham later told Female Cricket that the tournament had been "a great learning experience" for the whole of her team. Her highest score in the tournament was 56*, in a match against Thailand A that did not have full T20I status. The following month, she again captained Malaysia, in the 2019 ICC Women's Qualifier Asia, also held in Bangkok. In that tournament, she took nine wickets, the most for Malaysia, with a best performance of 3/10 against Hong Kong.

Duraisingam's and Malaysia's final WT20Is in 2019 were played against Singapore at the Indian Association Ground in Singapore, for the annual Saudari Cup. In that series, Duraisingam led her team to a 3–0 clean sweep. In the second and third matches of the series, she also top scored for Malaysia, and was player of the match, with 40* and 66*, respectively.

2021–present: Contracted player In April 2021, Duraisingam was one of 15 players to be awarded a contract by the Malaysian Cricket Association, the first time female cricketers for the Malaysian team had been granted contracts. "Here on, there will be no time to relax," she told the ICC.

In November 2021, she was named as the captain of Malaysia's side for the 2021 ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier tournament in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She led Malaysia to fourth place in the tournament, with wins against Kuwait and Bhutan. Her best batting performance was 44 in 40 balls against Kuwait. Her best bowling figures, 2/15, were against Hong Kong, More importantly, in Malaysia's final match of the tournament, against Kenya, on what has been described as "... one of the biggest days in the history of Malaysian cricket ...", an outcome that made the front pages of newspaper sport sections in Malaysia.

FairBreak career In March 2022, Duraisingam was recruited by FairBreak Global to play in its privately run 2022 FairBreak Invitational T20 in Dubai. She was allocated to the Tornadoes team.