NEW DELHI: A cricket coach in Haryana was told to train the women’s side, and he got scared at first. One in Madhya Pradesh, who was worried whether the sole girl he had taken in his academy would be able to play with dozens of boys or not, got told by her, “Sir, I can do it. Are you ready?” Another was hesitant to admit a girl from a different state to his academy in Himachal Pradesh, but agreed after her parents’ request.Little did they know that the girls they were coaching would go on to script history in Indian women’s cricket, and would be part of a moment “equivalent to the 1983 win of the men’s cricket team”, and would end up changing the direction of women’s cricket itself.
The players lifted the trophy and certainly deserve all the credit. But behind those superstars were coaches who kept the fire burning, made them dream, and sometimes even brought them to the ground.One of those stories begins in Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh. While Pooja Vastrakar was not part of the World Cup squad due to injury, she has been a mainstay of the Indian team in the last 4-5 years as a seam-bowling allrounder.Talking to TimesofIndia.com, her coach Ashutosh Srivastav remembered, “I saw a kid (Pooja) playing in the ground and firstly I thought it was a boy because she had also dressed up like a boy. So I generally asked ‘Beta, will you play cricket’ and she immediately joined our academy.” “I would constantly ask her if she was comfortable with the boys, because for me it was a challenge. How do I make a girl play with 100 boys? But I saw her courage. She said, ‘Sir I will do it. Are you ready?’ So I told her that just like we train boys, we’ll train you as well.”In Vastrakar’s absence, Amanjot Kaur has made the spot her own. Amanjot contributed significantly to India’s World Cup final win, including the run out of Tazmin Brits to break a crucial South African opening partnership and then taking the match-defining catch of Proteas captain Laura Wolvaardt.
Nagesh Gupta, who has been Amanjot’s coach since 2015-16, told TimesofIndia.com how Amanjot’s profile changed from a fast bowler to a seam-bowling all-rounder, a skillset much sought-after in Indian cricket.“She initially came as a bowler,” Gupta said. “But when I saw her batting, she could bat too. So we developed that slowly. With time, she became stronger against spin, and she already handled pace well. Overall, she became a good all-rounder.”In Himachal Pradesh, when HPCA decided to set up India’s first residential women’s cricket academy, former Ranji player Pawan Sen was called up to coach the aspiring cricketers. Two of his students, Harleen Deol and Renuka Thakur, were part of the World Cup-winning squad.“Renuka was part of our first batch (2009), while Harleen came in 2013, when she shifted from Punjab. I first denied admitting Harleen and told her parents that we won’t take girls from other states, but upon her mother’s request, I agreed,” Sen said, adding, “Renuka was always a fast-bowler while Harleen came as a leg spinner. But when we were playing a match in Maharashtra around 2014-15, I sent Harleen to open as she had a solid defence. In the first match, Harleen scored 48, and thereafter her interest in batting increased and she became a proper batter.”Even during the World Cup, the role of coaches was significant. When Jemimah Rodrigues was dropped mid-tournament, she dialed her childhood coach, Prashant Shetty. Talking to TimesofIndia.com, Shetty detailed the conversation he had with Jemimah. “We talked before the New Zealand game. I told her that whatever happened has happened now think about what we can do going forward,” Shetty said.Shetty gave Jemimah two small goals, because “being philosophical at that moment was of no use.” Shetty told TOI what those two goals were:i) “Firstly, I told her to think that she’s going to play the next match, and then practice accordingly while being positive and not thinking about what has happened outside the rope, think about only what you will do once you cross that rope.ii) “The other thing I told her is to start well in the next match. Be compact in the initial 8-10 balls so that the nerves get settled.”After she came back in playing XI, Jemimah scored a crucial 76 in a near do-or-die match against New Zealand, and then played a career-defining knock of 127 against Australia in semi-finals to help India complete one of the greatest chases in WODI history.
The challenges and learnings
Girls opting to pursue cricket is still not a norm in India and when they do, it comes as a unique set of difficulties for the coaches too.“Amanjot came at a time when there weren’t many female cricketers in the academy. So giving them an environment to play and learn was the biggest challenge,” Amanjot’s coach Nagesh said.Moreover, Pawan Sen said, “Communication was a big challenge initially and convincing parents to let girls play is another big challenge.”Haryana women’s team coach, Mahipal, who worked closely on Shafali Verma’s technique to make sure her head doesn’t fall back while hitting the ball in the air said: “I have been training women for quite some time. But when I was initially given the responsibility to coach women, I didn’t want to do it. I was a little scared, to be honest. But over time, I started working harder and slowly built a stronger women’s team. With time, that feeling faded away. I treated all my students as my children only and received support from them.”Pooja’s coach, Ashutosh, explained that exposure, or rather lack of it, itself becomes a barrier in coaching a female cricketer. “Girls understand things a bit late as compared to boys, in my experience. When boys step out of their homes, several people talk about cricket with them. That is not the case for girls. So while teaching any skill to girls, we have to demonstrate everything, which boys would have seen otherwise while playing.“
Significance for coaches
While the World Cup victory is a milestone for the players and for women’s cricket, it also holds so much significance for coaches too. “The women’s cricket has been on an upward trajectory since 2017. But this victory will take it to a new level of interest because now they have role models. Now, girls will continue to play the game for a longer period, like boys try to play professional cricket till 25-26.”Amanjot’s coach attributed this victory to the greatest accomplishment. “This is the biggest achievement of my career. It’s like a dream come true.”The players will remain the faces of this victory. They deserve every bit of it. The Harmans, Jemimahs, Deeptis, and every other team member. But the coaches, too, deserve their moment. They believed in them before anyone else did. They picked up these champions when their confidence was broken. When the dream looked buried under dust, the Prashants, Pawans, and Nagesh Guptas dusted it off and handed it back.This World Cup will be remembered for the players who lifted the trophy. But a piece of it will also belong to the ones who lit the flame and never let it go out.
