Arunabh.ly__ Posted October 8, 2023 Posted October 8, 2023 Gulab Singh Shergill believes girls in his village deserve a shot at chasing their dreams More than a dozen young girls from a small village cycle through farmland in the Indian state of Punjab. Moving along a dirt pathway, dressed all in white, their excitement starts to build. Amid the miles of wheat fields, emerges the source of their joy: two cricket pitches, with plastic wickets and strip of concrete from where they can bat. If it conjures images of the 1989 Hollywood film, Field of Dreams, it wouldn't be too far from the truth. These 18 girls make up the Gulab Singh Cricket Team. Cricket is the most po[CENSORED]r sport in India, akin to a religion many would say. While it continues to remain a male-dominated game, things are changing. Earlier this year, India started a women's cricket premier league (WPL), a female version of the Indian Premier League (IPL). It has quickly become one of the world's most lucrative women's franchises, second only to the Women's National Basketball Associate in the US. Women in India have been active - and high performing - in cricket for many years. The WPL has catapulted them into mainstream po[CENSORED]rity. Now they get the kind of media attention only reserved for men's teams. In October, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the governing body of Indian cricket. said it all contracted female cricketers would be paid the the same match fee as men - a historic decision to promote "gender equality" in the country's most-loved game. Despite the changes on the national level, it can still be difficult for girls to be afforded the opportunity to play, especially in rural towns. "I created this cricket team to make their lives better," says Gulab Singh Shergill, 35, who started this plucky little league four years ago. Gulab Singh Shergill started the little league four years ago Partly to live out his failed dreams of playing cricket professionally and mostly because he really believes the girls in the village deserve a shot. "They don't get permission to get a higher education, only getting to tenth class," he says. After that, it's a life of cooking and cleaning until they are married and sent to live with their in-laws. His players are being exposed to something different. Every day, they come here, park their bikes under a tree behind the batting area and head to the grassy field where they start warming up. Simranjit Kaur, 13, is learning to bowl. She runs down the pitch, rotates her arm and lets the leather ball out of her hand. Her height allows her to get speed and she says her accuracy is starting to improve. She is quiet and soft spoken, still very much the frame of a child but has had to grow up fast. After her mother died suddenly three years ago, her grandmother has become her primary caretaker, along with her two younger sisters, aged 10 and three. She joined the team a few years ago after seeing them play in a tournament in a neighbouring village with her father, a cricket enthusiast. "My father asked me if I would like to play," she said in the courtyard of her house. "I said yes. So he asked the coach if I could join. And he said to come the next day. Click : Clickhere
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