Women in Green and Beyond celebrates the can-do attitude, the spirit which enables little girls watching their brothers and other neighbourhood kids play the gentleman’s sport outside on the street from their windows and balconies, to themselves walk past the secure four walls of their homes and join the fun. The courage it takes to do just that is what takes them far, as far as the women’s cricket talent-hunt camps and the national team, and from that platform they inspire others to break shackles and cross restricting boundaries to hop, skip, run, hit fours and sixes and keep that scoreboard ticking.

The book, of the coffee-table variety, is a labour of love. What started as a thesis project for Mahwash Rehman, a student of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, documents six extraordinary years of Pakistan women’s cricket, (2010-2016) — from the time the team first won gold at the Asian Games — although women’s cricket history in Pakistan is much older than that.

Rehman’s camera peeks into the lives of women cricketers on and off the field. She has zoomed in on strong personalities. Their green kits with goggles, caps, helmets, shin guards, knee and elbow pads also serve as armour as they brace themselves against much more than what they may have initially bargained for. For them every ball bowled in life isn’t a simple and straightforward delivery. There are bouncers to be ducked, yorkers to be avoided — sometimes they can also be called wides and no balls presenting extra runs — and an opportunity to take advantage of.

It’s all about following your heart … and who would know this better than our women in green

Each and every photograph in the book gives the place, date and time when it was taken. As women’s cricket matches here don’t get much television coverage and the players, with the exception of perhaps one or two, are not yet household names, it would have been better to provide the names of the players in the captions, which has not been done throughout the book. The only assistance for the reader to figure out who is who in the coloured photographs comes in the last 10 or so pages which carry black and white close-ups of the sportswomen.

Still, it is also interesting to see these cricketers in their homes in the ‘Private Spaces’ section of the book. It reminds us that once off the field they are as normal as other girls their age. There’s Sana Mir grabbing a copy of Richard Nixon’s Leaders from a bookshelf — a befitting choice for someone who has led her team from the front. The one who has stepped into her shoes, young Bismah Maroof, poses for a picture while making tea in the kitchen. All-rounder Marina Iqbal’s photograph, meanwhile, has a touching quote from her about her mother, who didn’t initially approve of her playing cricket but started supporting her after realising how talented she was. Sadly, her mother passed away before Marina got selected for the national squad.

And just so you don’t mistake them for your usual girl-next-door, the ‘Training Camp’ pictures show them back on the field, picking themselves up after a fall, bandaging scraped knees and elbows, facing the camera with heads held high, not afraid to show blemishes and bruises as they face the lens.

As the photographer and writer says, “For me the experience has been a deeply personal one. I saw so many stories unfold while walking down this path — stories of bravery, struggle, perseverance, pride, and the passion of these women who, coming from diverse backgrounds, have collectively made their country proud. These stories I will treasure for life.”

The reviewer is a Dawn member of staff.

Women in Green and Beyond
(SPORTS)
By Mahwash Rehman
Markings Publishing, Pakistan
ISBN: 978-9699251801
128pp.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, October 16th, 2016