Meena Khanna, a former quick bowler, is happy to make a journey down reminiscence lane after watching Issy Wong make the packed DY Patil Stadium stand in entrance of a packed DY Patil stadium and cheer for her hat-trick on debut within the Women’s Premier League. Meena, who performed within the Terence Shone Trophy within the Fifties and 70s, was nicknamed Damon Meena as a result of he usually broke the stumps when he bowled. The trophy was contested between the Roshanara Girls Cricket Club and the ladies’s group of the British High Commission.
Asked if she would have favored to play below floodlights within the WPL, the most recent league in India, she stated, “Absolutely,” Meena stated. “But you realize, it is such an previous factor that no one ever considered it. Now I might say sure. But on the time, there was nothing of the kind.
Getting a hat-trick, bowling quick, bringing the ball into the limelight, Meena did all of it. He had tilted the stability of Terence Shone Trophy matches in his group’s favor so many instances that the British group gave him a nickname.
“They couldn’t play me, so they started calling me Demon Meena,” she stated. His performances as a quick bowler, an overhand quick bowler (of which there have been only a few then) had been such that on the age of 15, the opposition tried to cease him from taking part in.
“I used to be 14 when the Roshanara group began. We performed the primary match and that point I obtained a number of wickets. So the following match they stated, ‘No no, we can’t let anybody beneath 16 years of age play’. They simply needed to get away from it. We insisted.
we’re lower than 24 hours away #TATAWPL final ⏳#DCvMI , #Last pic.twitter.com/UGv15A7GWT
– Women’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 25, 2023
Our coach and umpire was Devraj Puri. We used to have males umpiring matches. They had somebody from the embassy and we had Devraj Puri. So he stated, ‘Hum woh nahi sunenge aur hum aapko nibhayenge’. After that, I stored taking part in all through.”
For Meena, her ardour for sports activities got here from her household. Not to neglect that she was the National Games discus throw champion. “My uncles, my brothers, all performed cricket. I began taking part in it as a result of I did not have a sister. I had solely three brothers. He was choosing up no matter they had been taking part in. It was a cricket household and after that I married a cricketer as effectively.
It was no coincidence that Meena met her teammate Col. Anant Kanwar “Nandi” Khanna in a Ranji Trophy match. “My sons play cricket. It actually is in our blood.
But within the 50s, ladies’s cricket didn’t have the help system it has now.
“During my time, there was no teaching. The matches we performed with the British High Commission had been sheer brilliance. There was no cash. There isn’t any cash.
Tea and lunch on match days, and through apply video games Meena and her teammates obtained to play video games. Roshanara will probably be an exception for her star participant. “Being a military spouse, we had been typically posted exterior Delhi. Roshanara used to pay my lease and used to name me from wherever I used to be. Come and play that is about it.”
photoshoot like this 📸📸
What a stunning sight to see the 2 captains forward #TATAWPL Final 🏆 pic.twitter.com/8MbkTIAcfj
– Women’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 25, 2023
The Rs 30 lakh that Wong obtained after getting chosen for Mumbai Indians to play for 4 weeks is one thing that even Meena may not like.
Some previous media clippings and photos of Meena taking part in cricket present her sporting a churidar pyjama. “It was like sporting tight trousers. Didn’t hassle me because it did not get in the best way (whereas bowling). A salwar, sure. Later after I went to the Nationals I began sporting trousers. But in any other case the churidar did not hassle me. Did.
The Indian Women’s Cricket Association was shaped in 1973, a yr after the final version of the Terence Shone Trophy. It was additionally the yr of the primary World Cup of cricket – a Women’s World Cup. The Indian ladies’s cricket group made its debut three years in the past. However, time was operating out for Meena as a participant.
“I was about 34 when I played my last match with him (Roshanara). By then I had lost my momentum. For a bowler, especially one who is bowling in-swing, losing pace… it is not the same thing,” she says.
Fifty years later, with the first-ever Women’s Premier League last being performed on Sunday, there’s pleasure in her voice as Mina Wong speaks in regards to the different WPL performers. “It’s great now. With time women start getting things like this coming their way. With time they got that recognition. They are playing very well.”
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
