One Woman Army

Women’s cricket has witnessed tremendous progress over the last few years and this can mainly be attributed to the tireless efforts of one woman - Shubhangi Kulkarni. Priya Ganoo tells us more about a pioneer of Women’s cricket.

Playing her role of a convener of Women’s committee in the BCCI to the hilt, Shubhangi Kulkarni has done some exceptional work for the women’s game in the last few years. She was one of the key figures in the success of the recently concluded Women’s Challenger trophy and is keen to organise more tournaments that will do well for the women’s game. Cricket in India has been a male-dominated sport and when asked if it was tough as a woman to be a heard by her male colleagues in the BCCI, she said smiling, “Sometimes there are advantages because being the only woman there you are given an opportunity to talk first and I haven’t had an issue (being a woman) and we are fortunate that the BCCI has been very supportive.”

Earlier when Shubhangi headed the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI), it was her responsibility to garner funds for the tournaments and she admits it was difficult to concentrate on her efforts to improve the game. The latest development, she says, is the course to train former women cricketers to become coaches as there is a lack of women coaches in the country. “We invited ex-women cricketers from all over the country. The state sent their representatives to become coaches. They were trained at the National Cricket Academy and so now every state will have a female coach.”

Since girls are not encouraged to take up the sport in this country especially, Kulkarni insists that a change of mindset is required. “Girls have to force their parents to allow them to play.” In contrast to that boys are brought up with a bat/ball in their hands.
Shubhangi is very positive with the entry of the BCCI in the women’s game and says that it has brought in a lot of funds and will help in improving the women’s game over-all. Shubhangi adds, “If there is a career-option for the girls in cricket, they might want to play cricket. A lot of parents feel they waste their time by playing cricket.”

A true visionary, she firmly believes that looking at the future is important and creating awareness that full-fledged careers in the women’s sport exist . “Now there are administrative jobs for cricketers. We are making people aware and training them for the future.” Shubhangi was a cricketer herself before she became an administrator and she feels the best years of her life were spent playing cricket. “I was a teenager when I started playing cricket. It was not just playing that I enjoyed but making friends, going out to new places and meeting new people.” Courtesy her involvement in the sport she now has friends all over the world. She says that the sport has helped her grow as a person.

Talking about her initial days, she began playing cricket way back in the mid-70’s it was plainly for the love of the game. One of her fondest memory is the West Indies tour of India in 1976 in which they won the first ever Test match at Patna. It was in front of a capacity crowd and Shubhangi says it was the most special moment in her cricketing career. Even though the women’s game will never be as popular as the men’s game she remains hopeful and says, “This is the best time to start playing women’s cricket” reinforcing the fact that things are looking brighter and better.

Contemplating on how successful the game will be in the long run she says, “I can see the BCCI giving us support and it is now up to the women cricketers to raise their standards to another level so that they are noticed and I can only see better days ahead.”
Here is to the realisation of that dream…