JOIN USBack in 1971, Bengaluru was a very different city that had roughly five primary areas. In the South, there was Basavanagudi/ Chamrajpet with the tip being Jayanagar and in the northern part, there was Malleswaram. M G Road, Brigade Road and Ulsoor were a part of the cantonment area, that would warrant a visit on special occasions for someone like me, born and brought up in Basavanagudi. I was studying in first PUC in Vijaya College when I was introduced to women’s cricket.
I was interested in sports right from the beginning, thanks to my father B Nilakantan, who himself was a good cricketer and tennis player. He encouraged my three elder brothers and me to take active part in sports and music. Through rigorous practice, I became an athlete and represented my school and college in several sports including hockey, kho-kho, throwball and ball badminton apart from track and field events.
Cricket was a new experience for me and soon, I began to enjoy it. My youngest brother B N Prakash was already a Division A cricketer for the grand old club of Bangalore City Cricketers. As a result, discussing various nuances of the game was quite common. Soon, I became a member of Falcons Ladies Cricket Club, where I met a very reputed name in women’s cricket, Shantha Rangaswamy. We played softball for the club while simultaneously working on our cricket skills.
Falcons was the first women’s cricket team that was formed in Karnataka. We were a small group of girls to start with, but soon had many more join us for our practice sessions that regularly took place at the National College grounds. Other girls who played for the club at the time were Sandhya Rani, Sheela, Chitra Serpeshkar, Jamuna and Padma. On certain days, we would even travel to Malleswaram for softball practice. That attracted a lot of people, especially men, who came to watch us play as they had probably not seen too many women play sports!
In the meantime, selections took place for the Karnataka state team and I was ecstatic to find my name in the list. It was the first state level women’s cricket team. Our practice sessions moved to the Central College grounds. I fondly remember many of us enjoying sugarcane juice there after practice. The ride to the grounds used to be tiring but at that time, even during summer, Bengaluru was so pleasant that we hardly broke into a sweat.
The women’s cricket association of Karnataka invited various other state level women teams including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Mumbai and West Bengal to Bengaluru formatches and we gained a lot of experience playing against them. Shantha Rangaswamy was the captain and I was the vice-captain. Amongst the bowlers, Shantha and Sandhya Rani were the opening pace bowlers whereas Jamuna and I were the spinners.
In 1973, we had the opportunity to travel to Varanasi for national level matches. In between our practices, we visited the beautiful Kashi Vishwanath Temple situated on the Ganga. At the time, it was uncommon to see girls travelling together to different states without parents. The competition was tough and we were the runners-up. Sandhya Rani and I were amongst the top wicket takers in the tournament and it made me feel that I was one step away from playing for the country. When I think of it, it seems like it was only yesterday when we held the runners-up trophy! The first picture captures one of my treasured moments in Varanasi. The second picture was taken at Century Club in Bengaluru with the then speaker of the Karnataka legislative assembly K S Nagarathnamma upon our return from Varanasi.
The next inter-state match took place in Kolkata when I was in degree college. It was a dream come true as we got a chance to play at the hallowed Eden Gardens. The aura surrounding the stadium was enough to overwhelm us. Everytime I watch cricket at Eden Gardens with my son, I never fail to remind him that I played at that very stadium!
Around the same time, selections took place for the Indian Cricket Team. Three of us were selected from the Karnataka team — Shantha Rangaswamy, Jamuna and I. We stayed back in Kolkata for coaching. We had a great time as we not only polished our cricket skills but also gorged on ‘Mishti doi’ and ‘Rasgulla’.
I am grateful to Srinivasa Murthy, Raghu and Bobby for all the support we received during our cricket sessions. Whenever I meet Sandhya Rani, we reminisce about those days and giggle like young girls! The entire experience of playing through those years, travelling with friends, winning matches and getting selected to play for India remains memorable even to this day.
(The author can be contacted on lakshmi.blore@gmail.com)