Women’s cricket has not flourished in Nepal or globally so it hardly draws any attention. But Tuesday is going to be a big day for women’s cricket in Nepal as teams from Baitadi, Nepalgunj, Bhairahawa and Kathmandu will play a first-ever national championship.
And the girls are up to it. After breaking national records in high-jump and triple-jump, Keshari Chaudhary, a school girl from Nepalgunj, is trying her tryst with cricket.
Keshari is member of a 14-member Nepalgunj team that arrived in Kathmandu Monday. Her team is led by badminton’s national star Nary Thapa. “I am very happy to lead a regional team and we are confident that we can win,” Nary, a member of the Nepali badminton team at the Tenth South Asian Games in Sri Lanka, said. “We have been playing this game for three years now – more than any other team.”
Tomorrow’s match comes as culmination of the arduous work put in over the last couple of years. Former national cricket captain Lekh Bahadur Chhetri and his team started planning an inter-school cricket tournament three years ago in Nepalgunj. They trained school children for a few months before finally holding the first ever girls’ cricket in the country.
Three years later, Nepalgunj received the International Cricket Council (ICC) award for the best cricket initiative and the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) announced the Women’s Cup for July 2007. When Nepal’s participation was confirmed, training started in Kathmandu, Bhairahawa and Baitadi.
“It wasn’t easy,” Upendra Prasad Bhattarai, vice-president of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), who runs a cricket academy at Baluwatar, reminisced. “I requested my grandchildren, a friend’s daughters and their friends [to come] for the training.”
The 18 girls trained for the Kathmandu team include, not surprisingly, four of Bhattarai’s grandchildren, one daughter each of his two coaches one of whom is studying in grade seven, and a few others, like Indrachowk’s Nira Rajopadhyaya.
“She came here herself after seeing the news on television,” chief coach Arun Aryal said of Nira, 26. Nira used to play cricket in the alleys with her brothers and she knew a few things about the game. “I love playing, and when I heard about it [training for the team], I could not stop myself,” Nira told ekantipur.
Saraswoti Lamgade, 26, is leading the Bhairahawa team that includes Madhu Thapa, a footballer who represented the nation at the U-19 Asian Championship Qualifying Round in China three years ago. “I used to play a little with the boys in my village,” Madhu, 21, who aims to join the army, said. “In football, I am a senior now and there are no events for us, so I turned up to train for cricket.”
Like Madhu, Saraswoti too learnt cricket playing with the boys. “I used to play with boys and when the opportunity to play with girls arrived, I could not miss it,” she said. The team has 10 players from Bhairahawa, four from Nawalparasi and two from Pokhara, with an average age of around 18.
For girls, it is an amazing feeling to call themselves cricketers. “At first, when I told my college friends that I play cricket, they were surprised and didn’t believe me,” Shradha Aryal, 17, said. “I had to bat to the boys’ bowling to prove myself. And then they started encouraging me and wishing me good luck.”
Officials believe Nepal can do well in the ACC Women’s Cup in Malaysia. “All the nations have just started women’s cricket, so I think all are at the same level,” coach Aryal added. “It won’t be surprising if we win the event.”
Nepal, Hong Kong, Thailand, Bangladesh, Singapore, UAE, China and Malaysia are competing in the inaugural edition of the ACC Women’s Cup.
Photos by Nepal Photo Agency
(As published in The Kathmandu Post, June 19)