It took some time for Nechal Dhillon to forgive her daughter Zahra Dhillon after being run out the first time they batted together, “I’m still a bit unhappy about it,” laughs Nechal while admitting she was at fault.
Nasrine Nasser has a similar story to tell about Zahra Nasser, who ran Nasrine out during one of their initial batting pairings. By now, after having played 20-plus matches on the same team, they’ve formed a winning partnership, but the initial matches were a period of adjustment. “I can’t run as fast as Zahra. I told her she needed to understand that,” quips Nasrine.
Nechal and Nasrine have quite a bit in common. They both play cricket. They’ve been trailblazing volunteers and have contributed heavily to their respective clubs and associations forming women’s teams and starting women’s competitions. Their daughters are both called Zahra. And they both play on the same team as their daughters.
Dozens of women across NSW now play on the same cricket team as their daughters, and most have really interesting stories to tell, about how they came to join their daughters’ teams, sometimes the other way around, but mostly because at some point during their daughters cricketing journeys, they were either called in to fill in for the team, or decided they wanted to play cricket themselves.
For Anu Raj and her daughter Varada Vinay, who both play for the UTS 3rd Grade team, it was Varada’s cricketing needs that brought Anu to the middle of the cricket pitch one sudden day. Growing up in India, Anu played a host of sports such as volleyball and badminton even when she attended college, but while moving around three countries and raising her daughter, sports had taken a backseat for years in her life. Until one day, when she was watching her daughter’s team play, and she told her friend Radha Chopra, another cricket mum, that she could easily do this.
Radha put a helmet on Anu’s head, handed her gloves and pads, and asked her to go out and play, they were a player short that day. It’s been a couple of years since then. Anu is playing in an NSW veteran’s team this year, while Varada, at 15, is now the captain of the UTS North Sydney CC’s Brewers Shield team. Mum and daughter still play in the same 3rd Grade team when they have the chance, and train every week together with dad and husband Vinay Nair as coach.
Sarah Gibbons, at 55, says it’s often a bit disconcerting to be one of the oldest women on the field. Daughter Amy, who plays 2nd Grade now and is also a human biology student at Macquarie University, assures her it isn’t so. In 2019, when Amy was playing a 3rd Grade match, Sarah, who had a bit of indoor cricket experience from her younger years, stepped up to play because they were short of players in her daughter’s team that day, and went on playing.
Over the years, mum and daughter often lift each other up as players, but also have a host of fun stories to tell of when they’re on the field. “She often can’t decide whether to call me Sarah or mum on the field,” said Sarah.
Often, the rival team members ask, surprised, “Is that your mum?” Truth be told, it is getting more and more common for mums to pick up a bat and play cricket alongside their daughters. Cricket NSW launched its social cricket competition, Twilight Cricket League, last season, where women can play weeknight social cricket as a team of eight or more, and the project has been one of CNSW’s most successful women’s cricket initiatives to date.
That’s the beauty of cricket. It can easily be a family activity. Nechal, for example, plays with her daughter Zahra and her niece Ameera Sodhi, her husband Randeep Dhillon is the coach, while her sister Jaspreet Gill, who was Nechal’s first cricketing partner when they were at school, is the team manager and their biggest fan. Nasrine recalls a match that she played in with every member of her family of five on the field in various roles, as players, umpires and coach.
In both Nasrine’s and Nechal’s clubs, there are three to four such mother-daughter pairs that play for the same team. Bernie and Kayla Robson, who both play for UTS North Sydney, have played together for years. Anu says she draws inspiration from their success on the field. In recent years, the Central Coast and parts of regional NSW have also seen a significant increase in the number of mums picking up the bat, to play their cricket their way.
Nechal, who is also the Head of Community Experience at Cricket NSW, says:
“This is a testament to Cricket NSW’s efforts to make cricket accessible for all, regardless of age, gender, or ability, over the last decade and more. The growth in female cricket remains one of our biggest strategic priorities at Cricket NSW and while we want more and more girls to start playing the game, we also welcome women who want to have a hit and play, in whichever format they are comfortable in. Our goal is to have an option available for every woman or girl that wants to play and love cricket.”