There was nothing that could dissuade Fatima Sana from playing cricket. Early on during her childhood, she wanted to bowl fast while playing against boys on the streets in the conservative middle class locality of Nazimabad. Fatima’s brother Shahroz was the main influencer here. He was the one convincing his friends to allow his little sister to play with them.

Fatima smilingly relates, “At times, the other boys would object saying, ‘Why have you brought your sister?’ But my brother was adamant that I would play.

“And even if they refused, he would call my other brother and we three would play our own match. Shahroz also taught me how to bowl over-arm. Initially, I was unable to even rotate my arm, but he taught me. He also made me increase my run-up in order to improve my speed.”

Slowly and gradually, Fatima started to startle the boys. Her bowling was nippy and accurate.

But the best thing for her was the full support she received from home. “My family was always on my side,” she says. “My father, my mother, brothers and sister were all with me. Yes, there were some relatives who were sceptical, critical and objected to my interests, but my father always backed me to the hilt.”

The 21-year-old cricketer is being hailed as the next big thing in Pakistan women’s cricket. Eos finds out what makes her tick

Fatima’s mother also pampered her. She spared her from daily chores and would make fresh juices for her whenever Fatima would come home after a match. “She doesn’t know much about cricket,” Fatima shares, “but her support has always been there. She wants to see me taking wickets.”

Given the unparalleled support from home, Fatima could dream of playing for Pakistan and making a name for herself in women’s cricket.

“I wanted to play at a higher level,” she says, “so I asked my brother to check to see if there were any girls playing cricket in our area and he gave me the much-needed confidence, while locating a place for me where girls played cricket.

“Tahir Mahmood was the coach there and, after seeing my game, he sent me to a zone where there were a lot more female players and I started playing with them. When I took my first wicket, they picked me up in their arms and cheered. It was the most exciting feeling.”

From there on, Fatima proceeded to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Academy. She was practising at the under-17 district level when she got a chance to bowl in the nets when the West Indies women’s team came to play in Karachi in 2018.

According to Fatima, “It was then that I realised that I am competent enough to play. I also went to the National Stadium, where some senior players, after watching me in the nets, advised me to work more on my bowling.”

Slowly but surely, Fatima was crossing all the hurdles an aspiring athlete has to overcome. “I played departmental cricket in the beginning,” she recalls. “Sana baji [former national team captain Sana Mir] called me to play for the ZTBL team, which she was also the captain of. I played for her team and I put up some good performances. I was the Woman of the Final in that tournament. It led to me being called to the Pakistan camp in 2019. Still, I was not selected for the national team.

“It was when Diana Baig got injured that the Pakistan women’s team coach, Mark Coles, summoned me as her replacement for the upcoming tour of South Africa. Diana also supported me. When I did well on my debut, Diana called me and wished me well. She was so encouraging.”

Recalling her ODI debut against a formidable South African side at Potchefstroom, there is a glint of joy in Fatima’s eyes.

“I was initially nervous,” she admits, but adds that her namesake Sana Mir grabbed 4-11 in the match to help Pakistan win by eight wickets. But Fatima’s only wicket was a great matter of pride for her. “I got the prized wicket of Lizelle Lee,” she says. “Afterwards, my teammates told me that I had got the wicket of a world-class batter.”

Hard work and persistence led Fatima to further success. She became a regular member of the Pakistan women’s team. Her exploits in 2021 — 24 wickets in 16 matches — earned her the International Cricket Council (ICC) award for the Best Women’s Emerging Player in 2022.

“I received an award from the PCB, too, before that,” Fatima states proudly. “I knew about the one from PCB, but the ICC award I was not expecting. None of us had won that honour before. It was a huge motivating factor for me.”

Fatima also has the singular honour of playing in the Caribbean Premier League in the West Indies, where she did not get intimidated by her much taller and stronger opponents.

She was going places and meeting great cricketers. And then she got a chance to meet her idol, Ellyse Perry, during the Pakistan team’s tour of Australia. The tour proved a great learning experience for her, despite Pakistan losing all three ODIs and two of the three T20s, with one game being washed out.

“I enjoyed the Australia tour a lot,” Fatima says. “They had good pitches for fast bowlers and their batters are solid. Bowling against them is a challenge, but my bowling was getting support from the pitches over there.”

On her special request, Perry honoured her with a meeting. Fatima recalls, “I have been watching her since my childhood. She is my role model. Hence, upon meeting her, I was initially shy but then I also wanted to ask her so many things, such as how she practised, how she turned into an all-rounder. She told me that she didn’t do a lot of work on fitness but made up for it with strenuous bowling and batting.”

Fatima hopes the Pakistan women’s team can overcome the jinx of not being able to beat arch-rivals India. They came close on two occasions — the ODI World Cup in New Zealand last year and the T20 World Cup this year.

“Yes, there is a frustration that we have been unable to grasp those elusive winning moments there,” says Fatima. “We came close but could not win. But you need to win against the bigger teams.”

Fatima’s obvious leadership skills have led to the PCB selecting her, for the first time, as the skipper for the Emerging Asia Cup underway in Hong Kong since June 12. “I am grateful to the PCB for giving me this honour and for having so much confidence in me,” she says. “I must perform like an all-rounder now.”

She believes that the pathways available for girls to take up the game have fewer hurdles now, stating, “A lot of avenues have opened up. The PCB has taken great initiatives in this regard.

“But acceptance from our society is still quite low. There are parents out there who are still reluctant to send their girls to play cricket. The infrastructure is in place, but girls are not freely allowed to play. Still, I think that things will improve as we obtain more success.”

When asked what advice she would offer to the future generation of female cricketers in Pakistan, Fatima says, “Keep your focus on cricket. Keep working hard. Also, parents, please support your daughters, because they will support you.”

The writer is a senior cricket analyst.
He tweets @hashmi_shahid

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 18th, 2023