Suhail Dar
Kashmir has a large number of athletes especially cricket athletes.
It is obvious that male athletes are playing at the national level and get good reverence at state-level sports. But our female cricketers although playing at the national level are discriminated against at the state level which has degraded the status of Women athletes.
Mehak Sofi who hails from Mattan Akoora of Anantnag District has played at the National level and participated in different tournaments at Himachal Pradesh in 2016.
Mehak 20, a young and energetic athlete has played at Rajkot Gujarat and Goa under-19 and also in the under 23 tourney in Bangalore. She has been rewarded as the best wicket-keeper at Nagpur for KPL.
“Men do get get benefits while women cricketers are facing discrimination mainly due to the social constraints against women in Kashmir,” Mehak told The Kashmiriyat.
Rubiya Sayeed, 24, a national-level Cricketer and Captain of Ranchi Trophy who hails from Budasgam Hillar of Anantnag District started her carreer by playing in 2011 at District level tournaments made similar allegations.
Rubiya, who has been rewarded as an all-rounder at state as well as national level cricket for her best performance said that she could have acheived a lot, but due to the women cricketer getting no attention from the officials, less women are coming forward to play cricket.
She played for North Zone in 2017 and is still heading as Captain of Ranji Trophy. Rubiya was awarded a scooty for getting first position in Marathon Race.
Both have alleged that they are being discriminated and deprived at state level.
The young athletes who hails from southern region of Kashmir despite showing excellent performance outside state await or regular selection at State level.
Both the Female Cricketers have made an appeal to the higher ups of Sports Council as well as LG adminstration to provide exposure and required facilities to female cricketers at state level.