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It's a lovely morning, ladies and...

Women cricket commentators throw up images of glam doll and noodle straps. Here's someone different

STRAIGHT BAT Subhadra Suri, from cricket to commentary

Shanta Rangaswamy, Sandhya Aggarwal, Behrose Edulji and Sreerupa Bose. Do they ring a bell in your mind? Probably they don't. Because unlike men's cricket and everything that goes with it, women's cricket and women commentators hardly make news. And of course, we're not talking about glam dolls with noodle straps here.

For Subhadra Suri who was in Kochi recently, as a commentator for the India-Pakistan veteran's one-dayer, it is cricket before all else. For the former cricketer, this assignment was a dream come true. Having battled gender prejudice and cricketing odds, she has finally made it to the commentary box.

She has played first class cricket for the last 13 years but says, "It's only in the last couple of years that this field has been opened to women and they're doing a wonderful job. Look at Anjum Chopra who analyses and comments on the game as the `Fourth Umpire' on Doordarshan."

Cricket has been a passion for Subhadra since school. And she had to overcome the cut and thrust of day-to-day living, the disappointments and dejections at not being in the Indian 16, to be associated with the game through commentary.

"It all began by chance," the sportswoman opened up. "I was always good at sport and my brother suggested that I go and try out the newly-started women's cricket in Hyderabad. I did and was selected. I played against the West Indies in Thiruvananthapuram in 1976. In 1981, I played against young England in Hyderabad and was made the vice-captain of the South Zone. Meanwhile, I got engaged. After my first child was born in 1984, I came back with a bang in cricket. The media had written me off because I had got married but I proved them wrong. I played for the next six years but was not selected for the Indian eleven. I was dejected and gave up cricket but strongly nurtured a dream of staying with the game. Commenting on cricket was the best option," she says, clearly enjoying her new role and picking up a lot of new lessons along the way.

With the mike in her hands and the game live in front; Subhadra is happy that her day has come. "It was with the ESPN Star Sports game show, to select a sports and cricket commentator, that my chance to live my dream came. Opportunity literally knocked at my door and I went for the selection. I was knocked out in the third round but Ravi Shastri consoled me saying that I knew the game having played it and that I had a good command over the language. He asked me not to give up and that my day would come," says Subhadra about her dogged determination and the fire in her belly that refused to die out. Subhadra holds cricketers Chetan Chauhan and Meher Baba among those who have encouraged her in pursuing this line.

Now, sitting in the commentators' box and voicing her views, Subhadra's lives out her dream. Her job with the Indian Airlines and the runners-up Mrs Andhra crown, which she wore a few years ago, have all been small achievements when compared to the fulfilling cricketing experience, she says.

PRIYADARSSHINI SHARMA

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