If you hear her sisters call her from afar, you’d probably think you heard them yell out ‘Karane’. But if you listen to them closely, you’d notice that it’s ‘Karune’, an endearment for Karuna Bhandari.
“When I used to play cricket with local boys in Maitidevi, one of my sisters would come to remind me that it was time to go home,” remembers Bhandari. “They would yell my name, and that would make me nervous,” she says.
Born to a family in Sindhupalchowk in 1988, Karuna moved to Kathmandu two years later. For Karuna, a schoolgirl whose daily routine involved carrying the school bag, doing homework and studying for exams, South Africa and Australia were some distant countries on the world map of her School Atlas.
Growing up with a brother, who is 10 years older than her, Karuna had little control over the TV remote. While doing her homework, or just reading a book, she would have no option but to watch whatever her brother decided to watch. Most of the time, it was cricket.
“I think I was around eight-nine years old during the 1999 World Cup,” she shares. “That was the first cricket series I watched seriously, and I was really hooked on to it. I clearly remember the South Africa-Australia semi-final.”
Looking at Ponting and Gilchrist swing their bat, and Kallis and Boje rattle opposition stumps, the nine-year-old dreamt of playing the game in the real world. Walking home from school, she’d seen local boys play the game at a ground near her home. “But I had not seen a girl, not even a single one play with them.”
But that would not deter her. Donning a cap to cover her hair, she’d go play with the boys. “I didn’t want them to know that I was a girl. I was afraid that I’d be judged, and they would stop playing with me.”
“The boys with whom I played did not have the faintest of idea that I was a girl! But I was afraid that my sister’s calls would ruin things.” But even as her sister continued to call her, the players assumed that ‘his’ name was Karan, and ‘his’ sister was calling ‘him’ Karane, an endearment for Karan.
Having regularly played the game for over a decade — later they found out she was a girl, but still allowed her to play, Karuna desperately wanted to play for the national squad. The boys would have her field most of the time, and when she would be allowed to bowl, she’d have to bowl from outside the crease to make up for her pace.
But Nepal did not have a women’s team. “There were days when I would be disappointed. I wanted to play at the international level, represent my country..”
In early 2000s, things changed. Nepal too was going to form a national squad for women. In 2007, Nepali women not only participated in their maiden international tournament, but also made it to the final of the inaugural ACC Women’s Tournament, only to go down to a formidable Bangladesh in the final.
“The boys with whom I played did not have the faintest of idea that I was a girl!” Karuna says. Photos: Shreedhar Poudel/OnlineKhabar. (Below) Karuna with the runners-up trophy of the ICC Asia Qualifier. Photo: Karuna’s Facebook
“I knew that Nepali women are also playing cricket. But I did not have anyone to guide me, neither did I have the connections to meet the selectors,” remembers Karuna, who would share her anguish with her five siblings, who would in turn do the same with their co-workers.
“One day my sister told me that her boss had put in a word with the coaches at the Baluwatar Cricket Academy.”
Within a few days, Karuna was bowling her off breaks and honing her fitness at the academy’s ground !
For the first time in her life Karuna felt at ease playing against other ‘Karunas’, not having to play Karan.
In 2011, she debuted for the national squad. During her debut tournament, the ACC Women’s T20 Championship, Karuna claimed four wickets for just 10 runs against Kuwait, including a hat trick. She played an important role in Nepal’s journey to the semifinals of the tournament and qualified for the ACC Women’s T20 Asia Cup 2012, held in Guangzhou, China. At the 17th Asian Games, she played an important role for her team to qualify for the quarter final.
At the recently-concluded ICC Women’s T20 Asia qualifier, she put on a stellar performance with the ball, and also chipped in with the bat in a crucial match against Hong Kong. In a match that went to the wire, Karuna, a tail-ender scored 19 vital runs and claimed three wickets to hand her team a six-run win, and book a place in the Asia Cup, where test playing countries like India and Pakistan await Nepal
“I am not a batsman, I am a bowler. I know that. But I am confident that I can find the gaps in the field and rotate strike, even when I am batting,” says a confident Karuna, who is now part of the Armed Police Force’s women’s team.
But more important than that, she’s found and filled a bigger ‘gap’ in Nepali cricket — the lack of role models for aspiring women cricketers. More than 40 women cricketers selected for camp ahead of the ICC Asia qualifiers would agree.
