“I was not allowed to play because I couldn’t pay Rs. 20,” says Hrishitha Basu

Hrishita Basu, an integral part of the India U19 set-up recently got in conversation with Female Cricket where she spilled a few gems including an interesting story around “bees bees rupee leke match karvate the” (20 Rs for a game of cricket).

 

Hrishita Basu - U19 Cricket Player. PC: Getty Images
Hrishita Basu – U19 Cricket Player. PC: Getty Images

 

Hrishita Basu is a wicketkeeper-batter who hails from Howrah, West Bengal, and has played all of her domestic cricket, thus far, for the Bengal Women’s team. Basu got to playing street (gully) cricket as an 8-year-old and when was 13 joined an academy.

After making it to the state team, the hustle continued for Basu and she soon had rewards come her way in form of first making it to the India Under-19 team for a series against the New Zealand Under-19 Women team in November and following her impressive outings then to being a part of the India Under-19 team for the Under-19 Women’s Twenty20 (T20) World Cup.

Hrishita Basu got into a candid conversation with Female Cricket’s Juili Balal and in a 77-second clip posted on Female Cricket’s Twitter page, Basu is heard narrating a fun story that she got to while recollecting names of her coaches from back in the day when she just had begun playing cricket professionally for an academy.

 

 

Hrishita Basu answered Juili’s question by naming her then academy and coaches and while describing her 3rd coach, Basu added, “woh hamse bees-bees rupee leke match karvate the.”

On Juili asking Basu to elaborate on the “bees-bees rupee leke match”, Basu added, “bees-bees rupee leke kyonki woh ball nahi aata tha 180rs tab ka, woh red colour ka, joh bahut hi ‘ghatiya’ sa hota tha, 2 over mai uska seam nikal jata tha, toh woh 180 rs ka tha, toh ham gyarah/barah jan the, woh bees-bees rupee karke lete the har ek match ka.

Translation, “There was a sir who used to take 20 rupees for and that was for a red ball that was available at 180 rupees. The red ball was this bad that the seam would start to tear apart in only 2 overs of play and yes, for that 180 rupees ball, he used to take 20 rupees each for us 11-12 people.”

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Basu concluded by narrating an incident when she didn’t pay the 20. Basu said, “Aisa hua ki ek din maine 20 rupee nahi diya, mereko sara din batting hi nahi mila, sara din. Phir uske baad mummy aake sir ko sau rupee di aur kahi aap khilao isko aache se.”

Translation, “Once I decided not to give the 20 rupees and he did not give me batting the whole day, the whole day. Then my mom came and gave 100 rupees to that sir and told him to keep giving me opportunities to play in matches.”

Hrishita Basu in the ongoing, first-ever, ICC Under-19 Women’s Twenty20 (T20) World Cup, has had a lot to do and in her lone outing with the bat registered an unbeaten 11* and with the gloves had a catch to her profile. In the lead-up, Basu registered a fine 28 against Australia in the warm-ups and against South Africa in the 5-match registered her best score of 20*, and had 4 catches and 2 stumpings to her name.

Don’t forget to catch out on the full upload of the candid interview on Female Cricket’s YouTube channel.

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