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 Tanushree Dumpala’s journey so far.
Tanushree is a junior in high school hailing from San Ramon, California. She is a medium-paced bowler who’s been playing for several years. Tanushree is also a talented artist, often sketching out her favorite anime characters when not playing cricket.
“I was four-and-a-half years old when I wanted to start Kuchipudi dance. The instructor told me that only kids five years old and over were allowed in class, but I wanted to learn so badly I begged her and my parents to let me in. Finally, she agreed, and I danced for four years. I also trained in classical singing. And I took art classes, too. But, I’m an introvert, which means I don’t usually like talking to people. I feel a lot of pressure to perform in everything I do, which is why I’m analyzing everything around me, everything my teacher says, everything that’s going on in a match. Like, what can I do better?
But cricket games – those are freeing. Cricket is what makes me the happiest, and everything you could ask me about leads back to cricket. I gave up all of my dance, singing, and art classes for cricket. I aspire to get into Nationals and represent Team USA, and to do that, I have to work and practice hard.
I implement what I know during women’s matches, and if I make a mistake, everyone says, “Okay, it’s okay, you’ll do good next time.” I get that support more often on the women’s team.
Like in this one tournament in 2018 where I was playing on a women’s team against men – it was organized by NWCL – I was the highest wicket-taker of the entire tournament, with a total of nine wickets! I remember this run-out where I threw and hit the stumps directly – it was at an angle where the stumps were not that visible. And Geetika, who was the captain at the time, complimented me and said, “Oh my god, that was a great throw!” I also got a caught-and-bowled wicket that day. I felt delighted that I could play in those tournaments against the men. It gave me the confidence to take my wickets and help my team. And it made me feel proud.
When I’m able to help my team, it makes me feel proud. When I take a wicket or reduce the runs, it makes me feel proud. When I hit those four’s at the NCCA Women’s game a couple of weeks ago, that made me feel proud.
NCCA Women’s Cricket helps me build confidence and overcome challenges I face as an introvert because I get to meet many new people, talk to people, interact, and get a lot of compliments, too! And that makes me feel proud.”
Please consider donating to the NCCA Women’s Program today via their GoFundMe to support players like Tanushree 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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