Being denied entry at an academy ’coz i was a girl, motivated me

She is the first Indian woman to score a century in the history of World Cup cricket. She is also a three-time winner of BCCI Player of the Year award (Junior Player of the Year 2007-08, Senior Player of the Year 2009-10 and Senior Player of the Year 2012-13). But the life of this 26-year-old Indian cricketer from Chennai hasn’t been a rosy one — she fought many odds to surface heads-up.From people telling her how a woman cannot excel in a sport like cricket, to the lack of infrastructure in the initial days of her career, Thirush Kamini has had to come a long way. But she’s broken free of the shackles to prove how #noconditionsapply in her life and career. Excerpts from a chat with the feisty Thirush...
The challenges I overcame as a woman cricketer
I started playing in the late 90s. I was only an eight-year-old girl then. Back then, the society around us was very critical about my parents’ decision to support me follow a sport like cricket. There were many who told me and my parents upfront that a girl should concentrate on her studies, and later, should be married off after a certain age; that cricket was no sport for a girl. And so, my parents had to put in a lot of effort to convince others, especially relatives about why they were supporting my decision to follow my heart. Every time my parents met our relatives, someone or the other would ask them, ‘Why do you want your daughter to pursue cricket, a sport that is dominated by men?’. In fact, initially, my mother also wasn’t too happy about me taking up cricket. Though she was a basketball player in her younger days, she had her reservations when I showed a keenness in making cricket my career. She was very particular with my education. She wanted me to become engineer or doctor. She told me as long as I did well in my studies, she didn’t have a problem with me playing cricket. She made sure that I did well in my exams. Only after studying was I allowed to play cricket. My father, who was a hockey player, had the toughest times convincing my mother and relatives those days...
Infrastructure also wasn’t great back then. That was another big challenge I had to overcome. There’s this one incident: My father went to an academy in Chennai to check if I could also get trained there. They told him that they train only boys, and I was denied entry. That really motivated me to prove them wrong and show that girls can be as good as boys in cricket. Later, once I started playing, the same person who denied me permission called me and asked me to join them at the academy. Now, when I come to Chennai, I practise at Kreeda Sports Foundation.
My success mantra — passion, determination, hard work
I just kept doing what I loved the most. I loved both studying and playing cricket and I was able to juggle both well. So, I didn’t really have to sacrifice one thing for the other. Therefore my mother’s insistence that I study didn’t really put any pressure on me. And when I represented India in Under-21 in Pakistan, and did well at 15, my mother was convinced that my future lay in cricket. At 16, I made my debut for India in the Asia Cup. So, I started playing at the highest level at a young age and eventually, the plan to pursue medicine or engineering had to be dropped.
I consider my passion to be my biggest strength. I’ve been passionate about studies and playing cricket. And I have always been very determined to do well in whatever I take up, no matter what circumstances I face in life or what conditions that are put across me. These two things — passion and determination — along with my hard work is paying off now. This is my message to other young women as well. It is also important to believe in oneself. Don’t listen to anyone, don’t give in to others’ jaded thoughts. I lost my mother when I was 18. The day after she passed away, I went back and scored a century. And that shows my grit, no matter what I go through.
To those who put conditions on a woman’s life...
It is important that everybody is given their space to explore things in life. The same applies to all the women out there as well, and not just men.
Every single woman is as capable as their male counterparts. With adequate support and encouragement, women can excel as good as men in any
field. And the best reply to anyone who puts
you down by discouraging you is to actually show them what your are capable of. That’s exactly what I have done with my life.
Facing the tricky question on marriage
It’s not just me, but every woman of my age who faces the question, ‘When will you get married and settle down?’ almost daily. What I feel is that it is something that should happen naturally, without any coercion. I don’t want to force myself into a bond just because I am 26 now, or because according to everyone that’s already ‘late’ for a woman to get married.
Men’s cricket vs Women’s cricket
All I can say is that the progress has been really good ever since BCCI took over women’’s cricket in 2006. Since then, the women’s cricket graph has gone up really well. Especially, after the 2013 World Cup which happened in India, there’s been really good response, and people have been keenly observing our matches. Again, the 2016 T20 World Cup, which happened alongside men’s World Cup, upped the attention that women’s cricket has been getting. Also, it is important that anyone who take up a sport, is financially secure as well. In that way, BCCI has given us central contracts that allow players to take up the sport professionally. The infrastructure has also improved drastically — we get to play on international grounds, we have coaches who are as acclaimed as the coaches who train the men’s team are, and we also get other amenities. And I know that after the 2017 World Cup, things will further improve when it comes to women’s cricket.
My cricketing icons and inspirations
Adam Gilchrist was a trendsetter and he was one of my first inspirations. And in women’s cricket, it was Australian cricketer Karen Rolton whom I looked up to first. And of course, MS Dhoni has been one my biggest inspirations.