Early 90s it was. Two teams of 12-13 year olds were playing cricket in school. One of them hit the ball and it went straight for the boundary. But something was different. They were all girls!

When I was transferred to another school – KV no.1 Raebareli, I was happy because 33% students of the class were girls, it was a welcome change from previous school. Actually, Section C of the class was merged with sections A and B.

We could have easily formed two cricket teams. Sometimes, what you say, gets manifested.
So when one of our friends proposed to play cricket, the idea enthralled all of us!

But there was a problem, we did not have a bat.
The 1st stop was our school PT teacher’s room, but he informed us that all the bats have been issued to boys.

We were a bunch of feisty girls. We simply took a wooden log from a chair and started playing.

And soon it turned out, we all started enjoying the game.

When one of the teachers saw us hunting for a wooden log and we trying to break a chair to get it, he suggested buying our own bat. Money was scarce for such extravagant purposes and with a lot of effort, we finally brought a brand new bat – with Rs.110.

Now we would look forward to the games period. We would find out which girl is in the teacher’s good books and force her to go and get us games period.

If we fell short of players, we inducted junior class students (who were on a break) in our team to play.

Slowly, the entire school learned that we played cricket. Junior kids would come to see our match and cheer for us, sometimes our classmate’s too.

This newfound love for the game would make us do unthinkable stuff and even today it brings a smile on our faces!

Summers used to be hot and frequent power cuts, would make classrooms stuffy and impossible to sit with 50-60 students. That was one such day. We asked our class teacher if we could go out and play and he reluctantly agreed.

That day, we kept on requesting the teachers for games as there was no electricity. This went on till the 9th period! We played our hearts out on that day and returned home happy and content.

With daily practice, some of us started playing really well.

But just after a year, my father got transferred and I had to leave the school and my lovely game.

I tried to persuade the girls at my new school to play cricket but no one agreed.

And in old school, as soon as my friends graduated from class 8th, teachers and parents forced them to quit the game and focus on their studies. All dreams withered like wildflowers.

I wonder, if someone would have encouraged us, or mentored us, who knows one of us would have played it professionally. After all, Jhulan Devi started at the same time.

With the U-19 women team winning the world cup (2022) and hearts, I found the solace, India is finally moving in right direction. One step at a time.