T20 World Cup: Teenager Shafali Verma shapes as new Little Master
To get a game as a young girl, Shafali Verma had to pretend to be her brother. Now the 16-year-old is India’s next big thing.
Favourite colour? Cricket. Favourite movie? Cricket. Favourite food? Cricket. Favourite drink? Cricket. Favourite pastime? Cricket. Favourite sport? Soccer. Kidding. Cricket. Favourite Little Mix song? Cricket. Favourite book? Cricket. Favourite singer? Cricket. Favourite actress? Cricket.
India’s 16-year-old Shafali Verma is the single most fascinating figure of the World Cup.
Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy and Elite Honesty and Meg Lanning and the rest of the Australian players get all the headlines and photo shoots, and deservedly so after no one giving a hoot for so long, but on a global scale, no one captures the imagination like this young woman.
Asked recently about her interests outside of her sport, invited to list the teen hobbies and diversions and modes of escapism from the increasing glare of about a billion Indians, she has deadpanned, “None. Only cricket.”
The Hindu newspaper, with its respectable enough readership of 42.5 million or so, has recently run a photo of Verma and Sachin Tendulkar after they’ve crossed paths in Melbourne. She’s grinning like it’s her dream come true. Tendulkar looks like he knows what it means to her. The broadsheet publication has the decency to acknowledge the source of the photograph in a caption that reads: “Shafali Verma with Sachin Tendulkar. Photo credit: SHAFALI VERMA.”
How’s this for openers in the World Cup opener — the battle between the actual openers, Australia’s Healy, batting in lower case lately, and VERMA.
For the uninitiated the teenager is tiptoeing through one of the most remarkable life stories in world sport, she’s a Bollywood movie waiting to happen, she’s the most exciting prospect since a teenage Tendulkar was wielding a bat that weighed more than he did.
When she’s crossed paths with him in Melbourne last week, when Tendulkar has been in town for the Bushfire Bash and she’s been there for the tri-series, she’s posted the aforementioned photograph on social media and written: “The reason I took up this game was because of Sachin sir. My whole family has not just idolised but literally worshipped him. Today is a special day for me that I got to meet my childhood hero. It was a dream come true for me.”
Can you be a childhood hero when you’re still in your own childhood? VERMA’s 49-ball innings of 73 as a 15-year-old against the West Indies in November has broken Tendulkar’s 30-year record for being the youngest Indian to post an international half-century. “I’m feeling no pressure,” she says on Indian Link Radio.
“My only aim is to play well and always do well for the country. I like that people are starting to know my name but I want to do even better, I want the whole world to know me. If I start becoming more recognised and doing well, I want to help poor people that can’t play cricket.”
She wants the whole world to know her. Great line. Tendulkar has written back to her: “Keep chasing your dreams because dreams do come true.”
The Bollywood screen writers won’t have to lift a finger for this one. It pens itself. VERMA was rejected from cricket teams and academies in her conservative home district of Rohtak, about 70km from New Delhi, so she cut her hair so she would look like a boy. She took her sick brother’s place in the team and made so many runs she was named “man of the series”. She had not replaced her brother — she was pretending to be him. The runs have continued and so has the haircut.
India’s top four is the best in the tournament, according to Australia coach Matthew Mott. VERMA opens with Smriti Mandhana, a veritable grandma at 23, who has described the Indians as “the happiest team at the World Cup, although Thailand might give us a run for our money.”
She says of a group made for pyjama parties as much as pyjama cricket: “This group really knows how to have fun. We have a lot of dances, a lot of singing. You can think of the vibe if you see the age of our team. With that kind of age group, there has to be fun and if there’s no fun, there’s something wrong with the girls. Young players come into it with fresh thinking. They don’t have anything behind them. They know nothing.”
Ah, the joy of being young enough to know nothing, only cricket. There’s four teenagers in India’s squad. They’re the youngest group, with an average age of 22. Batting at first drop for India is 19-year-old Jemima Rodriguez before 30-year-old captain Harmanpreet Kaur comes in at No 4 like Mother Teresa keeping a rein on her giggling underlings. We never thought an Indian player of Tendulkar’s clout would come along again but perhaps we’ve been looking in the wrong place. Perhaps, just perhaps, here she is — a godsend for her country, and her sport.
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