History made as a women's team plays against the men for the first time in Kerala

History was made at the iconic Palace Oval-that is said to have hosted the world's first One-day tournament, the Pooja cricket- when a women's team, for the first time in Kerala's cricketing history, took on the men in a competitive tournament.



The team's journey to make history started with their coach asking Tripunithura Cricket Club joint-secretary Kunal Visam if they could participate. Speaking to the Times of India, coach Umesh NK related the story, saying, "We came here to play a few practice matches against the TCC juniors and we won a couple of matches. That gave the players and me the confidence to actually compete with boys in a tournament set-up. I asked Kunal if we could field a team for this Pooja and he welcomed it having seen the performance of the girls. The KCA also gave permission without any hesitation."



Having received the required approval, the Academy scrambled to put together a team, which they were almost unable to do. The UC College Academy where the team trains, is one of the best in the state and many of the players had to leave for the senior and Under-23 camps that were starting.



It looked difficult to manage the 11 and Umesh even thought about suspending the plan but, a phone call to former Indian pacer and the head of KCA's High-Performance Centre, Tinu Yohannan changed his mind. "Tinu asked me not to withdraw from playing. He called up other academies in the state and made sure we had a team to field," Umesh added.



The team that came together was a mix of five players from KCA's Idukki academy, two from Pathanamthitta, a few from Ernakulam and the three players available from UC College. One of the players from the Idukki academy was former Kerala player and current academy coach Rakhi P. Though they were not the 11 the academy had hoped to put up, it was a team. And the team was ready to write its' name in the history books.



On the big day, the team managed 111 runs from their 25 overs against Tripunithura CC Juniors. The total was chased down with nine wickets to spare as their opponents recorded a comfortable win. However, for the team, it was not the end result that mattered. They had done what no one before them had and now because of them, women in the future would. They had started something new to help develop the women's game further.



After the game, the captain of the women's team, Anjana spoke to Times of India. "This is the best day of our life. To play at such a historic venue in a tournament, that itself is an achievement. It gives us the motivation to keep pursuing cricket more passionately," she exclaimed.



When asked if the team was nervous playing against the boys, her teammate Elizabeth said, "Never. We never doubted our ability to play against boys. We play practice matches every weekend and have also beaten boys teams in the past. It is just that we were not able to field our best team today."



With new milestones continuously being reached in the women's game, it is safe to say the game will keep growing and improving.