Luck is a funny thing. One sometimes has to be in the right place at the right time and around the right people to get ahead in life. This holds in sports too. However talented an individual may be, the universe must, in some way, conspire to cradle his or her audacious ambitions. The Asha Sobhana Joy story is no different.
A few days ago, with fire in her eyes, Asha helped her team, Royal Challengers Bangalore, get its Women’s Premier League campaign this season off to a thrilling start by becoming the first Indian woman in the tournament’s nascent history to claim a fifer.
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As she looks back at the evening, there’s evident disbelief and wonder written all over her face.
“WPL changed not just my life, but the lives of so many others, particularly those of domestic players. Players can now dream that they will also one day play alongside Smriti Mandhana, Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, and Richa Ghosh. I never thought I would one day share a dressing room with these people. Everyone can dream now,” Asha says, with a smile stretching from one ear to the other.
Newspapers and new prospects
The first bite of the cricket bug doesn’t need the fancy setting of a cricket stadium or a cricket academy.
“I was mad about cricket, but I did not know women’s cricket existed. I would get some newspapers, roll them and secure them with rubber bands. We’d then put them into old Milma packets, secure them again and bowl with them. All the kids in the neighbourhood came together to play. We had a beautiful childhood. My brother Anoop nursed ambitions to become a cricketer. When that didn’t happen, he pushed me to realise mine,” Asha reminisces.
Asha started as a pace bowler. One day, tired after practice, she tried out some leg spin in the nets. Her coach, the late S. Sreekumar spotted this and pushed her to switch to leg spin entirely.
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Asha’s parents are not cricket nuts like her. Today, they recharge the DTH connection to watch the games their daughter features in but it took a jolt early on to make them see just how serious Asha was about a career in cricket.
“I remember, once when I was in class 7, my school’s PT teacher, Thangamani Ma’am, announced that selections for girl’s cricket teams were to come soon. I went for those trials without telling anyone. This is where I met the late Sreekumar sir and Shabina Jacob ma’am (former Kerala captain). They liked me a lot and selected me for the district team. With a big smile on my face, I walked into the house at around 7:30 pm, only to find them panicking and close to calling the police because I was nowhere to be seen,” Asha remembers.
That incident, funny now in hindsight, helped her parents – an autorickshaw driver and a housewife – buy into her investment in the sport.
“There were times when I didn’t have money to pay for my travel. My father would sacrifice his rickshaw fares to take me to training or games. Even recently, when I went home, my father wouldn’t let me take a scooter to travel to train myself. Worried about something happening to me, he would take me personally in the auto.
Asha Sobhana never thought she would share the field with players like Smriti Mandhana, Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, and Richa Ghosh. | Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K / The Hindu
“So many people have come together to help my career. Kerala Cricket Association secretary Vinod sir was a big supporter. After Sreekumar sir, I have been coached by Biju sir and Aaron George Thomas sir at the Medical College. Recently, I got to train with Laxman Sivaramakrishnan sir too in Chennai, which was an incredible experience.
Of the lot, I owe a lot to Shabeena Jacob ma’am. She identified my talent and sometimes paid for my travel, as did Aaron sir. He would give me a week’s bus fare so I didn’t have to sweat over it. He would take me out for orange juice because I had to take two buses to go home, so he would ensure I had something in my stomach after training. I know the value of all these things,” she adds.
New lease of life
Asha joined South Central Railways back in 2011 and represented the Indian Railways for many years. It was a daunting experience which changed the way she looked at the sport, potentially even spurring her to stick with it and achieve more each day.
“In the Railways setup, at any point, there would be 14 current India players and then you. You’re competing with Indian players to get into an XI. That was really tough for me. That said, once I joined Indian Railways, there was hardly a time when I had to sit out of the team. I competed and held my place,” she says.
Asha has spent more than a decade toiling in the Indian domestic scene since. Her career saw her move from Railways to Puducherry and travel across the country looking for ways to move onto higher levels of play.
The India call-up never came, despite her leg-spin being a rare trait in the cauldron of talent supplying the national team. When things were looking a little hopeless, Asha nearly considered walking away from the game she had dedicated her life to. But there’s that funny thing called kismet again and it brought the RCB call-up with it.
“I was at a point in my life where I was considering whether to keep going or not. The WPL then happened. Malolan (Rangarajan) sir and (VR) Vanitha – RCB’s scouts – need all the credit. Malolan sir said, ‘I have never seen a leg spinner like you anywhere else’,” Asha gushes, an indication of what a little confidence can do to an athlete.
In season one, Asha managed five wickets in the five matches she featured in, with a best bowling figure of 2/27. While her wily leg-spin made heads turn, she felt she could have done more. Close to 60 days spent in camp with the RCB think tank helped her proceed in that direction, she reveals.
“Right from the start, RCB management had faith in me. To pick a domestic player and make them play on a bigger stage takes a lot of courage. Over the past year, we’ve spent a lot of time in camps. For at least 3-4 days a month, we would congregate for a camp and over the summer, we had a continuous 50-day camp which was specifically for fitness. It helped me get the best out of my bowling in terms of my run-up, alignment and efficacy with the ball. It’s not easy to organise 50-60 days of camp, and I am grateful to the franchise for the benefits it gave me,” she says.
“ Njan valara kashtapattu aanu ivade ethiyadhu (I’ve really struggled to make it here). Seeing the recognition, all I feel is relief,” Asha says.
From a little girl in Kerala carving no.10 on coconut bats to a leg spinner making heads turn and wickets fall in one of the biggest platforms in the women’s ecosystem, Asha Sobhana is finally realising her dream at the age of 32, and as she wants to tell the world, she’s just getting started.
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