Telugu Vijayawada Girl In International Cricket Team - Kalpana

Who Is She

Her Name Is Kalpana 19-year-old Belong To Vijayawada Daughter of autorickshaw driver R Venkateshwarulu, Kalpana was spotted by Purnima Rau (now the Indian coach) and A Srinivas Reddy (Andhra Pradesh’s women’s coach) in 2002 at the Vijayawada Stadium, when she was barely six years old. 

FIRST TELGU GIRL IN INDIAN INTERNATIONAL CRCIKET TEAM 

Her father, knowing he couldn’t financially afford her sport, was not very encouraging initially, and even thought of marrying her off three yeas ago.

After much persuasion from the Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) — particularly by Gokaraju Gangaraju and MSK Prasad — a reluctant Venkatesharulu allowed his daughter to continue with her game. The ACA went a step forward by paying her a stipend of Rs 4,000.

How She Was In Indian Team

Incidentally, the first cricketer from Andhra Pradesh to represent the country was wicketkeeper Prasad, and Kalpana has followed in his footsteps. “It is a great honour that Kalpana — also a wicketkeeper — has become the first women’s cricketer from Andhra to play for the country,” said Prasad.

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According to him, Kalpana has all the qualities to become a good keeper. “She is athletic, agile, swift and safe. She makes wicketkeeping look easy. I’m impressed by the way she effects stumpings and takes catches.”

Recalling Kalpana’s eventful journey, Reddy said, “In 2002, ACA conducted a few camps in 13 districts to encourage women’s cricket. In Vijayawada, 20 girls attended. It was very difficult to get girls to take to the game. We had lure them with shoes and other things.”

“Purnima was here as consultant. We spotted young Kalpana. We were impressed with her work ethic. She was the brightest of all them. Among the girls, only this girl came forward to be the keeper. She was regular despite a few problems on the home front,” he reminisced.

Kalpana began to make impressive strides after this. “She was very good at the basics. When she first played in the South Zone U-16 tournament, she emerged as the best keeper. During this time, her father was adamant to stop her game. But, ACA convinced her father.”

“Her father is a proud man now. He proudly says that today is a special day, and that his daughter flew for the first time,” remarked Reddy.

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