‘Why do you wear boys’ clothes?’
It is usually tough for women in our country to take up cricket -- or any other sport for that matter -- as a profession. For Murshida Khatun, a 21-year-old left-handed batter, it was even tougher.
Growing up in a low-income religious-minded family of 13 -- five sisters and six brothers -- the roadmap to success for Murshida was a very bumpy one. No one in her family or in her neighbourhood could imagine that she would ever continue playing cricket let alone play for the national side one day.
"When I was 13-14 years old, I had to face a wide range of criticism for wearing boys' clothes and playing cricket with them. There was a talim ghar (a place where the women of the village are given religious education and guidance) in our locality and my mother was a member of that talim ghar. There the local women started criticising me and my mother had to face and endure all these criticisms. They started raising questions as to why I wore boys' clothes and played with them despite being a girl," Murshida explained the situation that she and her family had to go through.
Not only from outsiders, Murshida also had to face questions from members within her family regarding her way of living.
"My elder sisters also used to ask me how would they be able to marry her off if she keeps on wearing boys' clothes and play with them. 'Who will marry you?' they used to ask," said Murshida.
Murshida, who used to bunk school to play cricket in her early days, also had to cope with the financial constraints that limited her playing time.
"We had financial hardship. I would even not be able to manage the money required to buy a tennis ball. So I used to help my mom in household chores. I used to sweep the terrace and clean the dishes for which my mother used to give me money by selling eggs from her poultry farm," explained Murshida.
Overcoming all these hardships, Murshida was finally able to make it to the waiting list in a BKSP trial in 2012. She was called to the squad after a player got injured. However, it was still not easy for Murshida to get into BKSP as it required around 20-25 thousand taka to get admitted which he family could not afford. So she had to seek her relatives' help.
Coming from a village to a highly disciplined environment such as the BKSP, the first few months for Murshida were very hard. The 21-year-old, however, remained adamant of doing well and after doing well in domestic tournaments, she was rewarded in 2018 with an opportunity to make her debut for the national side. And although Murshida has been dropped and picked several times and played only five ODIs and 10 T20Is till now, she hopes to play for Bangladesh for a long time and leave her mark at the international stage.
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