“I did not want to play cricket at first. My brother played cricket. So I used to go and watch his game. Then my mum and dad pushed me to play as well. I started playing with the boy's team and I liked it,” says Arya who is an all-rounder.
Arya hails from Maharashtra in India. Her family moved to Australia in 2011 when she was seven. Initially, she was not interested in sports.
“I did not focus much on sports, let alone cricket," she told SBS Hindi. "I was playing club netball before I started playing cricket, but my focus was on studies.”
And then her brother started playing cricket. Their parents would go to watch the games, and Arya would accompany them.
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Her mother Deepla Shipurkar shares the story, “It was just that my son was already playing and she would sit there and watch. So we asked her to play instead. She played for a year and picked up well. And then she was so interested that she started playing with the girl's team. Soon she moved to clubs and university teams.”
Arya and her mother both believe that she would not be playing cricket if the family were still in India.
“I never thought about it while in India. But here it has made a big difference. You get better opportunities here and then it is up to you to perform,” says Deepali.
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Arya has performed well. She made it to the NSW Under-15 squad out of almost 50 players who had come for the trials. She believes that playing with his brother’s team taught him a lot.
“I like playing with boys’ teams more as the difficulty level is higher in their games. You get to learn more about the techniques and strategies,” says Arya who loves former Indian cricket skipper MS Dhoni.
She says, “I love MS Dhoni. He was my inspiration. When I started playing cricket, I saw this new movie about his life. That got me even more interested, and I started wicket keeping with the boys’ team. I got few stampings and catches. Everyone in my team would say you play like MS Dhoni.”
However, Arya supports the Australian cricket team. Her reason is not cricket though. She says, “I am an Australian citizen, so I have to support Australian team.”
Now, Arya has three wishes.
“I want to play for Australia. I want to play in India. And I want to play in IPL,” she says.
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