‘DON’T STOP CHASING YOUR DREAMS, BECAUSE DREAMS DO COME TRUE.’
-SACHIN TENDULKAR
On the 13th of July, 2020 the 11th standard regular students of MAHSS got a golden opportunity to interact with one of India’s icons in Women’s Cricket, Miss Shikha Pandey. An accomplished bowling all-rounder, Miss Shikha has been part of The Indian Women’s Cricket team for almost 6 years now.
Although she was born in Karimnagar (present-Telangana), she was brought up in Goa since the age of 8 years, and has been a proud ‘Goenkar’ ever since. She did her schooling in a KV college in Goa, and was also taught once by our very own director, Sir Vyankatesh Prabhudessai.
From a young age, Miss Shikha had a passion for cricket. She had a dream to represent her country in the sport that she loved. Motivated and supported by her parents, Miss Shikha trained hard, excelled at the game and today she has achieved great success and fame. Back then she would practise a lot of cricket with girls and boys alike, which developed her talent and made her dream even further.
But it was not before her second year as an undergraduate in Electronics and Electrical Engineering that she began pursuing cricket with serious intent. After completing her engineering degree from Goa College of Engineering in 2010, three multinational companies offered her opportunities, but she declined all these and decided to take a year off and focus on her cricket career completely. In 2011, she joined The Indian Air Force, and in 2012, she was commissioned as an air traffic controller.
In 2014, Miss Shikha was selected for India’s tour of Bangladesh, after performing outstandingly well at Inter-State Level. In that same year, she was also part of the India squad at The ICC Women’s World Cup Twenty-Twenty.
After Dilip Sardessai, she is the first Indian Player from Goa to play for any Indian National Team in cricket. She has also earned the laurel of being the first Goa Cricket Association affiliated cricketer to play International Cricket for India.
She was also part of the Indian team to reach the final of the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup. India lost to England by nine runs in that match. Although this was a sad moment for the entire team, they did not give up and kept striving hard. Miss Shikha also played in the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup held in Australia.
Miss Shikha started the session by telling us the importance of sports and fitness in our life. It is important that besides studying and learning we also have to devote some amount of time in the day to play a sport or indulge in any physical activity or develop a hobby (listening to music, yoga, gardening, etc) to distress. Such activities calm our mind and provide us with a fund of energy to work even more. In addition, they also teach us various life skills.
Since her childhood, Miss Shikha had respected Sachin Tendulkar as one of the best cricket players ever. She told us that she had really enjoyed Sachin’s innings during the Sharjah Dust Storm. She also told us about the time she met the ‘Master Blaster’ in Australia. His simple personality, his humility and his class really inspired Miss Shikha and pushed her to her peak performance.
She also talked about the time she shared the dressing room with legends like Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj. Her conversations with them really helped her to understand the game better.
When Miss Shikha was asked whether Men’s Cricket and Women’s Cricket have different rules, she said that almost all the parameters were same, only with a few exceptions (Weight and Size of Ball used in Men’s Cricket is slightly heavier and bigger than that used in Women’s Cricket).
A Student asked Miss Shikha about the mindset she has, every time she steps on the field and goes to bowl. She replied that it is important to keep your cool, even if the batsmen smashes the first two balls for sixes, you should not lose hope. You should follow the strategy which was decided earlier because the field is set accordingly. So keeping calm is very important, even in a student’s life.
Miss Shikha was questioned about her schedule during the cricket season and off-season. To that, she replied that during the cricket season, her day is jam-packed with warm-ups, exercise, practice, etc. But during the off-season she gets some time to read, which is one of her favourite hobbies. Although she still runs rounds, has gym sessions and has at least two workout sessions in a day, yet she finds some time to read. She reads about cricket as well as some other books, and then she explains various things to her teammates.
Our director also complemented Miss Shikha for the way she was answering everyone’s questions, without stuttering at all, just like a Professor.
All in all, this was a very informative session for all the 11th Standard MAHSS students. We were privileged to have gotten the opportunity to interact with Miss Shikha Pandey, an extremely successful Indian cricketer and this was only possible due to the efforts taken by our director, Sir Vyankatesh Prabhudessai.
We learnt many life lessons from Miss Shikha’s experiences and without a doubt, this session motivated us immensely. At the end, Miss Shikha wished all the students at MAHSS the best of luck for our future endeavours and then signed off.
‘DREAM BIG ‘
Written by: Anmol Bhat. Class 11-MAHSS.