An all girls cricket team in India breaks with tradition

In India, baseball is the most popular activity, and many would even compare it to a religion. Things are changing even though the sport is still dominated by men.

India established the women’s cricket premier league( WPL ), a female variation of the Indian Premier League( IPL ) earlier this year. Next only to the Women’s National Basketball Associate in the US, it has immediately established itself as one of the wealthiest companies for women worldwide.

For many years, women in India have participated in bowling and performed well. They have gained widespread acceptance thanks to the WPL. They then receive the kind of media interest that is only given to men’s clubs.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India( BCCI ), which oversees Indian cricket, was established in October. A traditional decision to advance” gender equality” in the nation’s most popular sport was made when it was announced that all contracted female cricketers would receive the same suit cost as men.

It can still be challenging for women to be given the chance to play, especially in rural cities, despite changes at the federal level.

Gulab Singh Shergill, 35, who founded this tenacious minor league four years ago, says,” I created this baseball team to make their lives better.”

Mainly because he really thinks the ladies in the community deserve a chance, and partially to fulfill his failed dreams of playing bowling properly.

They simply advance to the tenth grade and are not granted permission to pursue a higher education, he claims. After that, they live a life of cooking and cleaning up until they get married and are sent to sit with their in-laws.

His athletes are exposed to a new environment. They arrive here every day, park their scooters behind the batting area in a tree, and then proceed to the lush area to warm up.

13-year-old Simranjit Kaur is studying bowling. She sprints across the field, turns her finger, and releases her grip on the set game. She claims that because of her top, she can move quickly and that her reliability is beginning to rise.

She also has a quite childlike frame but has had to grow up quickly. She is quiet and light spoken. Her mother and her two younger sisters, ages 10 and 3, have taken over as her primary caregivers since her mother passed away unexpectedly three years ago.

She joined the team a few years ago after witnessing them compete against her father, an avid baseball player, in an event in the nearby community.

She said in the yard of her home,” My father asked me if I would like to perform.” ” I replied” yes.” He then requested that I join the trainer. And he instructed you to arrive the following morning.

Simranjit makes chapatis for the family in the morning before she leaves for school while hunched over a burner next to her mother. After class, she puts on her baseball whites and heads to practice with her sister by her side rather than being cooped up inside like some girls her age with the help of her father and grandmother.

Baljeet Kaur, Simran’s mother, asserts that” There is an ill thinking in townships.” ” They say that women should get married and be sent to their in-laws as if they have no living ,” they say. Villagers occasionally explain to us why you send women to play. We want them to perform, and this is our desire.

Simranjit responds,” I don’t want to stop playing, this is my life ,” when asked how she feels when people discourage her. I feel awful because I truly enjoy playing and playing baseball.

Shergill works as a officer in the neighborhood police force; cricket is no his full-time job.

He claims that the people don’t pay anything. His full pay goes to the girls’ team, including the cost of a part-time coach, uniforms, and gear. He hopes to one moment construct an company with a bathroom and has donated some of his property for the cricket field.

He has only been able to expose these ladies to a life outside of their settlement in the past four years.

He says,” Now we can also have games between girls and boys.” That makes them feel good about themselves. They can then tell their parents that” I can do it.”

These women play cricket to escape the social obligations that come with being a woman. The shed female standards and are able to be children for a few hours each evening.

Harsimrit Kaur, 10 years old, says,” When we are playing a game, I feel like I am wearing my shirt for Team India.”

” I know I did it for India when I hit a six.” When I play, all I can think about is that I am no currently representing India, but I may one day represent India’s baseball team.

Shergill also has the backing of powerful people. One of Shergill’s greatest leaders is his oldest girl, Jasveer Kaur, also known as Bua.

At least once a month, she visits the field to console injured people or just to observe. She is all too aware of how difficult it is to be a person in this culture.

Jasveer, who was married at age 19 and soon became a mother, sobs at the idea of any of these women suffering the same fate.

She claims that because I was a girl, all of my emotions and expectations were repressed. ” I was asked to make and work from home.” Today I want to believe that I don’t need anything else in life if I can assist ladies in doing things. I want to assist women in growing in every way I can.

Shergill might be trying to sell his desire to play cricket professionally and reflect India around the world. However, the lessons he is imparting to these younger people are far more important.

Simranjit asserts,” There is no distinction between a child and an child.” Women are capable of doing anything that guys are.

Aamir Peerzada’s photographs

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