❤??❤Congratulations...!❤??❤ Shopian girl Jasia to play Women...

❤??❤Congratulations...!❤??❤ Shopian girl Jasia to play Women IPL Srinagar, April 25: Bringing laurels to her hometown Shopian, Kashmiri female cricketer, Jasia Akhter has been selected for the Women’s IPL . The native of Braripora village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district, the 28-year-old Jasia hails from a middle-class family. Jasia’s father, Gul Mohammed Wani, a farmer by profession earns only a handful of money to support his seven-member family. According to the Jasia, she developed passion for cricket from her childhood days. “I was crazy for this sport since my childhood. Like every other kid, I also started playing the game from my home,” Jasia said. On April 24, she got a call from a Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) official and was informed that she has been selected for women’s IPL tournament and has to report to Rajasthan on May 2, while matches will start on May 6. “I was sitting in front of my parents when I received the selection call. I could not control my emotions and broke down into tears. I could not believe my luck. After hanging up the call, I shared the news with my parents who were overwhelmed with emotions,” Jasia said. Jasia will be the first women cricketer from the Kashmir to be selected for IPL. “Three teams with total of 42 players will be playing in the tournament. Among them 12 are foreigners and 30 come from different states of India. I am one among those 30 players,” Jasia informed. For two years 2011 and 2012, Jasia played state level cricket for J&K. Lack of opportunities, and financial crunch forced her to leave Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) and in year 2013 the female cricketer moved to Punjab for play for their team. “In Kashmir, there are not many opportunities cricketers, especially for girls. Besides, we lack sports infrastructure in the sports, so I left Kashmir to make my dreams come true,” said Jasia. While, representing J&K, due to lack of facilities this female cricketer had to travel all the way from Shopian to the cricket academy in Srinagar for practice purposes only. It was costing her a lot, and with limited financial resources, she could not carry the practice for long. Recalling of how she got an offer to play for Punjab team, Jasia said, “I was playing inter-university games. The team from Punjab was also participating in the tournament. Seeing my performance, Punjab coach was so impressed that he offered me to play for Punjab.” In 2016 Jasia joined National Senior Women Camp and after that, she also played India Red in 2018. “I experienced many things outside. I saw people spending handsome money on the sport. Soon I got lucky as I got scholarship to pursue my passion regarding the game,” Jasia added.

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