Cricket has become a passion not only for boys but for girls as well. The other day while watching a local Twister-Mitsu Shoji T-20 league match , I happened to meet Vrinda Rathi, a young collegian cricketer doing the scoring. Out of curiosity I asked her what made her to do such a taxing job essentially handed by men. It was sheer passion for the game that brought this 26-year-old petite lass into this field, she said.
“Cricket for me all started when I use to play Gully cricket with my building friends. Being from Navi Mumbai, our SIES School at Nerul had a girls cricket team and I played for my school for two years in the inter-school cricket tournament. But then due to lack of coaching scheme for girls I could not continue.
After joining Ruparel College in 2008, she came across Ms Surekha Bhandare , who was coaching girls at Indian Gymkhana and since Ruparel college was having girls cricket team, she got another opportunity to play. After playing in inter-collegiate girls tournaments, she represented Mumbai University for four years.
“ It was during the course of matches our coach used to tell us to know the basic laws of cricket as well and should also know how to do scoring. So in a practice games we all use to do scoring in rotation. Then later in 2008 I appeared for the local Scoring exam conducted by Mumbai Cricket Association and cleared it. After that I did lot of scoring in local tournaments like Kanga League, Times Shield, Harris and Giles Shield and so on
“As time went by I really started liking this job. As it is really different and needs lots of patience and concentration to sit for six long hours and record the whole match ball by ball. It was not easy to sit in a tent with no fan and mud falling on your face and the score sheet, but still I use to enjoy, because every match had something interesting in it, let it be of any level or age group.
“In 2010, I got a opportunity to appear for the BCCI exam which was specially organized for girls. I was one of the eight girls who cleared it. After clearing the BCCI exam, I had an opportunity to do scoring for ICC Women’s World Cup in 2013.
After clearing the BCCI exam in 2010 , she got an opportunity to do scorng the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2013. After this year she was called to do scoring for the Indian Premier League match .
“ Though I could not achieve much as a player, cricket still has become more as a passion rather than a job for me. Meanwhile, my interest in cricket widened as I also took interest in umpiring and hope someday l will do umpiring at higher level too,’’ she concluded with pride. Incidentally, Vrinda has cleared her Mumbai Cricket Association umpiring exams and has already officiated in 25-odd matches so far.