“Girls don’t play cricket, it’s a men’s game.” Ravi Venkateswarlu Kalpana heard this every time she lifted the bat to play. But she continued to play and from gully cricket in the streets of Guntur the 22-year-old will now be a part of the ODI team for the home series against England later this month.
Kalpana made her debut against New Zealand in Bengaluru in 2015 and played for the country three years ago in the ODI against Sri Lanka and then seven more ODIs until 2016.
The cricketer who was in Visakhapatnam for a 15-day strength and training camp as member of the Indian Railways women’s team spoke of how her love for the game panned out.
- These women from the State are bringing home laurels through their cricketing skills
- Name Sneha Deepthi (22)
- Major teams Andhra Women, India Women
- Name Monica Sumra (38)
- Major teams Andhra Women, India Women
- Name Sabbhineni Meghana (22)
- Major teams Andhra Women, India Women
- Name Neeragattu Anusha (19)
- Major teams Andhra Women
Not the first choice
Cricket was not her obvious choice, says Kalpana who was more into athletics. She was introduced to the game as a 12-year-old by her friends “I stumbled upon cricket in school, when my friends started playing it as a pastime.”
Her game started shaping up when she frequented JKC college ground in Guntur where coaching was held especially for girls by the Andhra Cricket Association. It was here that she met her first coach Srinivas Reddy who helped her with her game and shaped her wicket-keeping skills.
“When I played in school it was no big deal but once I started going to the academy, the taunts started. My parents were not very supportive either and hence I had to stop playing for a few months despite getting good at the game,” says Kalpana. But Kalpana persisted with the game sometimes keeping her practice sessions from her parents.
“My father is an auto-rickshaw driver and he doesn’t follow cricket much. Once I turned 18 my family and relatives started pressuring me for marriage. As we were struggling financially, they wanted me to get married soon so that I could be ‘well-off’,” she says. But marriage would mean giving up on the cricketing dream and that was not acceptable to Kalpana. She fought off the marriage pressure by getting her coach to convince her parents.
“Initially they agreed to my coach’s request, but they approved of my cricket only after I represented the State team and started receiving an allowance of ₹ 4,000,” she says. She bought her cricket kit with this allowance.
Turning point
It was only after she was selected to the Indian team, did her parents realise that their daughter meant business and was making a place for herself in the cricketing world. “Even now they are not very fond of my game but now they do understand my passion for it and do not stop me from following it,” she adds.
Kalpana is getting ready to play the domestic women’s T20 series at Nagpur. She hopes all this will put her on the track to fulfilling her dream, of winning a World Cup for the country. Unsurprisingly, as a wicket keeper her icon is Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
