One evening when Amanjot Kaur was playing cricket in the nearby gully, with the boys in the neighbourhood, they refused to let her bat. The reason they told her: “She did not have a bat.” The real reason was different, only a few days ago had she hit a boy for boundaries, before she repeated it again. It had wound up the boys.
She returned home and instead of warmly hugging her father, a routine, she spent the evening idle. Bhupinder Singh, a carpenter, sensed something was wrong. Later, she told her about the evening, and he immediately started his scooter, went to his shop and returned late in the night with a wooden bat he himself had carved. He put the bat next to her and left home early for duty.
But the taunts would continue. The next day, when she went out flaunting her new bat in her neighbourhood, Phase V, Mohali, someone taunted her for picking up “boy sport.” Again, the boys did not let her play. That evening, she hugged her father, started crying and told him about everything she had faced in the last few weeks. Bhupinder just replied, “Tu khel puttar (You just play).”
The bat gave Amanjot a sense of belonging. The boys eventually let her play. Fourteen years later, far away from the gully that made her, she sparkled in her international debut, peeling off 41 runs off 30 balls, helping India beat South Africa by 27 runs in their Women’s T20I Tri-Series opener in London.
In the moment of joy, her father could not but recollect the teary evening. “It seems like yesterday. Like any father, I wanted her to be happy. She never demanded anything and I made her first bat and that is it, I guess I have never given her anything else,” Bhupinder told The Indian Express.
However, Amanjot credits her entire success to Bhupinder. “My dad played a big role in my career. His struggle is much bigger than mine, he left half of his work for me so that I don’t miss out on my academy,” she said. “Initially, he thought it was just a passing phase and my interest in cricket will gradually wane. He never thought I would play for India. I was bent upon proving myself in cricket,” she added.
Still the same
A day after his daughter won a match for the country, nothing has changed for Bhupinder. It was a normal day—he woke up at 5, left home at 7 and opened his rented shop in Balongi, Mohali, at 8. “I got several calls yesterday; people were congratulating me. I left home early because that’s my bread and butter and once Aman will be back, I will distribute sweets in the neighbourhood,” he said.
When she turned 10, in search of a girl’s cricket academy, Bhupinder literally searched the entire tricity (Chandigarh-Mohali-Panchkula), but it was futile. Four years later, when she turned 14, someone in the school gave Amanjot the contact of Nagesh Gupta, a BCCI level-II cricket coach, who was working at UT Sports Department and was coaching an academy at the Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 26 in Chandigarh. Without wasting time, Bhupinder took her to Nagesh, but the seats were filled.
Bhupinder pleaded for one chance, and Nagesh accepted. “Had that rejection not come, she would have been elsewhere. Seats were filled and they told us to wait another year. Thankfully, Nagesh sir allowed her to play in the nets and told me to enrol her in Sector 32 academy,” Bhupinder said.
Thus started her cricketing journey. Whatever happened,
Bhupinder will ensure that she reaches the academy on time. He would drop her in the morning and pick her up in the evening. Amanjot recollects those days. “The travelling time would take up almost 3-4 hours in a day but he managed that. If he didn’t do that, I would not have been here today,” she told reporters.
Then, on Amanjot’s 18th birthday, Bhupinder gifted her a scooty so that she could travel on her own to the academy. However, Bhupinder would follow her just to make sure she is driving fine. “I used to be afraid and just to make sure I followed for almost two months, then I stopped,” recalls Bhupinder.
Career hurdles
The journey, though, has not always been smooth. In 2019, when UTCA got the BCCI affiliation, Amanjot moved to Chandigarh and was appointed captain. In the 2019-20 season, she scored 370 runs in just nine matches of the senior one-day trophy. She amassed 457 runs in nine games in U-23 50-over. In the U-23 T20, she scored 184 runs and claimed 10 wickets in seven matches, performances that earned India A call-up. But a year later, she moved back to Punjab as some senior players in Chandigarh found it difficult to take orders from a junior.
“It was a tough time, she was the star performer for Chandigarh, but in hindsight, it was a good decision. She is at peace, scoring runs, taking wickets, playing for India and that’s what matters the most,” said coach Nagesh. He too praised Bhupinder: “He would drop her dot at 5.30 am even in winter, before everyone, including me. It’s just her hard work, which has paid off.”
But all those struggles seem worth it, as she made her international break count. “It’s an unreal feeling. It has not sunk in yet. I never thought I would do something special on my debut. The aim is to keep contributing with the bat and ball in the next matches as well,” said Amanjot. But as one journey comes to an end, another begins.
Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.
