During Women’s History Month, the Northern California Cricket Association (NCCA) highlights, celebrates, and honors the many NCCA women and girls who’ve taken its newly formed women’s program to the next level. Here is Anika Krishnan’s story of her journey so far.
Anika Krishnan is a freshman in high school and a medium-pace bowler from Fremont, California. She played cricket for ten months and looks up to Mitchell Starc and Thalia McGrath as her favorite cricketers. She enjoys watching sitcoms like Friends and experimenting with new cookie recipes in her free time.
“There are only two areas to my life: school and cricket. And I expect a lot from myself in both, because I know the best I can do.
All that pressure comes from me. It’s not even my parents or family that tell me to get good grades! Many kids in my class are terrified of getting B’s and stuff because they’re afraid their parents are going to be mad at them. But I’m frightened I’ll be mad at myself because I have a standard set for myself, and I have to get it done right.
If I start learning about a subject in school, I need to know how every part works. Like photosynthesis – I read the textbook and then made my mom read the book and explain it to me, and then I explained it back to her. Now we’re doing DNA strands and like, nucleotides, enzymes and all that, and when a new word shows up in the notes, I have to like, open a new tab, Google what that is, write down what that is, memorize what that is, and then go back to the notes and connect what I understood. I stayed at office hours every day to clear every question I had. And I’m thankful I had patient teachers for that.
The thing is, I want to know everything about everything. You can always get knowledge from something, good or bad. And I want to get all the knowledge I can get about cricket. I’m learning there are so many levels to it! Like where I am right now, I’m just focusing on bowling straight and at a good length, right? But then, just yesterday, I learned from my coach that you could add a little whip to your bowling, and it adds more pace. And there are so many kinds of things you can bowl!
And that’s the thing about cricket – everyone develops their style. Everyone gets to create their mark in the sport. Like in softball, you have to hit in that diamond. Whereas in cricket, people are known for not playing in front of them, they’re known for only playing behind them. So it’s more fun being able to play the field. I want to make my mark someday by being selected to the U.S. National team. I’ve got a long way to go, but we’re getting there.
And that’s why I’m so appreciative of the NCCA Women’s Cricket program because I feel like it prepares me better for the future. So starting earlier, getting to know everyone, and practicing with the other women is setting me up better for that. I get to play with U.S. National players, people who are so experienced and willing to share their knowledge; for that, I’m so grateful. And I’m appreciative that it’s helping cricket become bigger for women, especially in America.
Playing cricket makes me the happiest in life (and getting good grades)! I’ve always felt connected to cricket since it’s like a big thing in India and my family. It feels like it connects me back to my culture. It connects me to role models, like Yaashaditi Teki and Trisha Bhima, or Mitali Raj and Jhulan Goswami at the international level. Cricket is cool, logical, and classy. And cricket helps me find my community here.”
Please consider donating to the NCCA Women’s Program today via their GoFundMe to support players like Anika or contact women@nccacricket.org to learn more. NCCA is a federally designated 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, EIN 82-0739128.
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