Ishita Kapoor
I think I first started playing cricket when I was 8 or 9. I remember watching my brother play and really looked up to him. Teamwork and collaboration are two values I hold very high, and cricket allows me to be part of a welcoming team. When I first started playing, I didn’t really expect it to get so serious. But after learning the game and playing at some low-level tournaments, I realised that I had a lot of potential to grow. That’s when I started taking it more seriously, and put much more effort into playing well. After training for a few years, I partook in three tournaments that recruiters looked at for the national team. Me as well as a few other girls performed fairly well, so we were selected to play for Team USA. We all got a chance to get comfortable with each other, and now we sing songs and dance on the way to all our tournaments. Now I train about three times a week for two hours at a time to make sure that I’m keeping up my physique. Of course, playing on the national team also comes with the challenges. I recall when I got severely injured after my first tournament and couldn’t play for about 6-8 months. This made me feel like I was really behind my other teammates, but it gave me a sense of direction and goal to catch up. I think that my biggest inspiration is probably my brother, as he was the reason I started playing cricket in the first place. Without him I most likely wouldn’t have even tried the sport. Now I love and appreciate playing as a team, and hope to go on to play even bigger matches.