SAKEENA AKHTAR
Ms. Sakeena Akhtar, a girl with hopes and dreams, wanted to play cricket for India. Her dreams were shattered when her family did not encourage to pursuit her dreams. She didn’t give up on her passion and finally managed to overcome the obstacles she faced. She has been a cricket coach for the last eight years at Kashmir University. Over the years, Ms. Sakeena has played a vital role in shaping a lot of promising superstars for the country.
A resident of Munawarabad in Srinagar, Ms. Sakeena had never thought of making a career out of cricket. Presently, she is the only qualified cricket coach in Kashmir, and is currently coaching the under-19 state girls team. Ms. Sakeena recollects “When I was a kid, I was part of a boy’s cricket team in my locality. It was there that I learned the nuances of the game”. But she had to quit playing cricket when she joined higher secondary school because it was considered a taboo in those days. Later on, she joined the cricket team in school and performed superbly in inter-school, district and state-level matches. It was in 1998 that Sakeena played her first under-19 cricket match, for which she was the ‘Woman of the Series’ as best bowler and highest run-scorer. Upon joining Women’s College in Srinagar, compromising classes and spending time on the cricket ground for practice was how Sakeena managed a fair bit of her time. After college, she studied at Kashmir University for higher studies. Soon, she realised what she wanted to do in life, and quitted university after the first semester and moved to Delhi for a diploma in sports. She passed Level ‘A’ coaching course from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2009. Later, she started to work with the Sports Council Kashmir (SCK), where she arranged many camps for youngsters. Her first camp was at Polo Ground, where around 250 boys from different schools of Kashmir valley participated. Further, she went on to apply for a lot of other jobs wherein she got contract-based work at Kashmir University. Currently, she is coaching both boys and girls at the University.
She is planning to qualify for all the levels of coaching, after which she would become a National Coach, which will enable her to coach cricket enthusiasts anywhere in India. With such contribution by the girls in the valley clearly shows their motivation to do their bit for the country and these achievements would further encourage the coming generations to shape their future positively.
