For a long time, Wayanad did not have a women’s cricket team. Players whose hearts beat for the sport had to cross district lines to ply their trade in other setups. Something changed when a physical education teacher from Mananthavady village in Wayanad district – Elsamma Baby – came into the picture.
Her daughter, Anumol, was an aspiring cricket player, but barring herself and a friend with similar aspirations, Wayanad did not have enough players to field a team for regional tournaments. Elsamma then recruited a few players from her school to make up the outfit.
“At the time, parents were not too keen to send their daughters to play cricket,” Elsamma tells Sportstar.
“Parents of children belonging to the Scheduled Tribes were a bit more open to the idea of their children playing sports as they didn’t mind their kids playing in the sun and reacted to benefits (monetary and otherwise) of the sport positively,” she explains.
Galvanising a community
S. Sajana, who represents Mumbai Indians, and Minnu Mani, who plays for Delhi Capitals, are among the beneficiaries of this determined teacher’s efforts.
Elsamma, a Kozhikode native who moved to Wayanad when she found work in the government education system, has been moulding the sporting ambitions of countless girls in the hill district for over 42 years now. For the most part, her physical presence in the system helped in her efforts to encourage girls to take up sport.
Elsamma explains with Sajana’s example.
“Sajana’s mother is a Panchayat councillor. Her father comes from an agricultural background and is decently educated as well. Sajana was doing athletics full-time before. Initially, they were apprehensive about switching her from athletics to cricket and the consequences it could hold for her future. Cricket has more monetary benefits than other sports in India. I convinced her parents that she could always pursue athletics on the side if she wanted.”
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“When Sajana got selected, she travelled to Chennai for a game which she won for Kerala with a boundary, much like what she did for Mumbai Indians in the WPL opener. Since then, she has always been in the mix for the state setup. Sajana now has a house where her prize money and monetary rewards have contributed the most,” Elsamma says.
Matter of trust
For a community unaware of what life in sports looks like, someone coming and asking you to pledge your children to sports can be quite anxiety-inducing. Financial considerations about the future, the potential of life-altering injuries, safety in travelling alone as women, the risk of exploitation – Elsamma says parents are quick to consider worst-case scenarios when she approaches them to scout their children for more dedicated sports training.
She doesn’t fault the parents for it. Instead, she tries to involve herself as much as possible physically. She travels with the girls so she can chaperone them. This gives parents a sense of relief to have a familiar face accompanying their children.
Travelling with the players gave Elsamma a ringside view of the disparities within women’s sports.
“Sajana is the kind of athlete who can adapt to any discipline. She is a very gifted striker in football too, and even had the chance to experience life on the competition circuit. There is a stark difference in the kinds of transport, hotels and competition in general. There’s also the massive risk of a career-ending injury. Look at how things are in cricket. Once these girls have experienced the WPL, this is the story they’ll take back to the young girls back home and give them a higher standard to aspire to,” Elsamma explains.
There’s no room for error as trust once broken, would mean losing the community’s confidence in her word about the power of sport. That has made grassroot work of this kind almost a round-the-clock job for Elsamma and other teachers like her.
The need for foresight
Between great talent and expectations is a coaching infrastructure crying for some thought. A large part of Elsamma’s work is to identify students with promise whom she could then send to academies.
“As school teachers, we would handle multiple sports, but we didn’t have the infrastructure or resources to give dedicated training. A lot of the training I’m able to give is with the bats which belonged to my daughter. We are down to our last kit bag too.”
Elsamma, Anumol and a few family members were at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium when Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals kicked off season two of the WPL. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“Sajana and Minnu Mani are among the very few who persisted with the sport after progressing through all levels. We wanted them to make it to academies, which is what we’re doing. The Wayanad team has benefited from that. After losing for the first three years, we eventually won titles across all age groups (U16, U19, U23, Senior). Six children from our field are now in the state team,” she added.
Elsamma points out how a large bunch of students take up athletics early, and coaches then hesitate to give their students away to sports like cricket.
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“There’s an easy solution to this. Look at students who regularly finish in the first four positions. There is potential to continue in the field. The others who finish lower and have basic athletic capabilities can use those strengths to excel in other disciplines. It will give communities a more diverse spectrum of sportspersons. If it’s not working out in sports, there are allied jobs in sports people can explore. My daughter works in the agriculture department, but her interest in the game means she doubles up as a selector in the Kerala Cricket Association,” she says.
“We also need to induct kids early because after a certain age children become self-conscious, particularly girls. That becomes an added barrier to cross.”
“Lack of grounds, varied surfaces, and academies are also secondary problems. But there’s much to do before the conversation goes there,” she adds.
Life comes full circle
Elsamma, Anumol and a few family members were at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium when Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals kicked off season two of the WPL. Hers was the loudest voice cheering on when Sajana hit that last-ball six. While she had to head back to Wayanad soon after, another cricketer who passed through her canopy – Asha Sobhana Joy, who she managed while travelling with the state team at the U19 level – gave her another reason to smile with her match-winning performance.
Like Minnu, she hopes talents like Sajana and Asha too can break into the national setup.
“Playing for India is the ultimate dream. My biggest dream was for my daughter to represent India. I am trying to live that dream through these girls,” she signs off.
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