Celebrity column: Girls, go for it! writes Ayushmann Khurrana

There was a time in the ’90s when I used to take cricket coaching along with my brother Aparshakti. When our coach would say, “Ayushmann, pad up karo”, it used to sound like music to my ears. I was a middle-order batsman. My favourite pastime till date is to daydream hitting a perfect straight drive off a fast bowler. And Sunil Gavaskar used to have the most perfect one as he practiced the shot between two buildings as only straight shots fetched more runs. He was legendary and so is our cricket team of the present time. Our men’s team made it to the finals of Champions Trophy and is doing extremely well in Sri Lanka. But let’s raise a toast to the Indian women’s cricket team this time around. The recent World Cup was such a great outing. It produced two poster girls in Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur Bullar. They both batted well and have become national crushes of India. Cute and talented. What a perfect amalgam.

Smriti was born in a cricketing family in Sangli, Maharashtra. Her father and brother, both, have played district-level cricket. Her mother takes care of her diet and her brother still bowls to her in the nets. Harmanpreet was also born in a sports family in Moga, Punjab. Her father has been a volleyball and basketball player. She is one of the hardest hitters of the ball, no wonder she’s the only Indian female cricketer to play in women’s big bash league in Australia. Harmanpreet also makes a statement by wearing a jersey with the number 84, as a tribute to the victims of the 1984 riots.

As teens, my brother Aparshakti and I have played with and bowled to the senior women’s teams players in the nets. Sunaina didi was an opening bat and a fast bowler in Panchkula, Haryana. Manju didi was an off spinner. Our coach, Chopra Sir, used to mix the under-16 and under-19 boys teams with the senior women’s team, and believe me they were damn good and competitive. In this age of gender parity, there should be a mixed cricket team, just like mixed doubles in tennis.

Now that may or may not happen, but the question of the hour is why aren’t women’s sports as big as men’s? Neymar of Brazil earns 15 million dollars a year and Marta, a talented footballer from the same country on the other hand, is struggling to set a team. Some argue that men’s sports is more power and skill based and it’s more exciting to watch. But I seriously believe women’s tennis is sheer poetry. Have you ever seen Novak Djokovic’s imitation of Maria Sharapova? It’s beautiful! I’m from an all-boys school and we have seen three-setter matches of Martina Hingis, Monica Seles and Steffi Graf with extreme concentration. We loved the matches of these lovely women over those of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. As it is, men hit the ball so hard, particularly on the serve, that there’s less volleying and it’s less exciting to watch.

We all know how in men’s soccer, even a strong gust of wind is enough to knock a player over and they play-act like babies. The women don’t do that. They don’t have time for that. According to a study, women fake injury half as much as men do. And when they are on the ground, rolling around, they’re back on their feet 30 seconds faster than men. Women are just perfect. They exude elegance. Just like our admirable superstars Mandhana and Bhullar. These girls are batters of world quality and have tremendous fan following now. This is probably the first time that the women’s cricket that has got major attention from the mainstream media, and it’s a welcome change. Mithali Raj’s girls also met the Prime Minister and had a proud click. They are the bonafide role models of today’s youth. Who says cricket is only a gentleman’s game?