Meet Humaira Tasneem, captain of the UAE women's cricket team

It is one of those rare rainy evenings at the ICC Academy in Sports City. The showers have put a stop to our photoshoot with Humaira Tasneem on the cricket grounds. A local club match being played in the indoor stadium further means our filming options are limited. "Let's shoot in the rain," jokes Humaira. Something tells me she would much rather be outside and soak in the rain. After all, it was this appetite for life that led her to play cricket as an eight-year-old - a childhood adventure that has now borne fruit as she dons the captain's hat for the women's cricket team of the UAE.

In the sports landscape of the region, where does cricket stand? It may not enjoy the popularity that football or basketball does, but as Andrew Russell, development manager of Emirates Cricket, says, some of their school programmes show that there is a love and knowledge of the game. While the team mainly comprises women from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Humaira says that Emirates Cricket's initiatives, such as a talent hunt, are increasingly encouraging young women from different nationalities to participate in the sport. "There are younger girls from different nationalities playing cricket, but they are mostly beginners," says Humaira. As the captain of the team, she not only helms them on the ground but also fuels the hopes and aspirations of younger, fiercely passionate girls, who want to make something out of their dream.

Humaira's own cricketing career started at the age of 12 at her alma mater, Delhi Public School, Sharjah. Reflecting on that time, she says it was the encouraging environment in school that led her to think about pursuing cricket seriously. The support was equally strong at home, where her civil engineer father Hamid would routinely take her for practice sessions every morning before school began. "I had always been in favour of children playing sports. I feel when they play sports, they truly emerge as complete persons. The important thing is consistency and practice. Today, my eldest son is a doctor and a professional football player. Humaira is an architect and a cricketer. My third son plays football, while my youngest is a basketball player," he says.

Familial support goes a long way towards making dreams come true. But, as a child striving to excel in both academics as well as sports, life was anything but easy for Humaira. She admits that in her formative years, she was unable to strike a balance. "I was in seventh or eighth grade then. But the fact that I was playing sports helped me develop an attitude where I could not only do both, but actually be good at them," she says. Professionally, things began to look up when, in 2008, Humaira received a call asking her to come for a practice session. The then UAE cricket coach liked what she saw of Humaira's performance. "In 2008, there weren't too many girls playing cricket, there were hardly 15-16 of them. I was 13 and had no idea what I was doing. I remember our coach would throw these really high catches and, sometimes, it would hit my nose and I would start bleeding," she says. "There was no stress or anything at that time. We were a new team that was trying to bond. In 2014-15, we had another under-19 tournament in Kuwait, and a new coach from India called Kalpana Venkateshwar. She came up to me and said I need to practice regularly so that I could look at potential captaincy. I was scared, but also pleasantly surprised." Humaira started out as a bowler and, today, is a fairly dependable all-rounder. "She is a player who started cricket after playing many other sports (she had played basketball prior to foraying into cricket). She is very athletic, leads the team exceptionally well and is constantly looking for ways to improve," says Russell.

Humaira is aware of the enormity of the challenge she has taken on. While women's cricket is still not as popular as other sports, she says it has come a long way and that gives her hope for the future. "The way we started in 2007-08, we were 9 all out to Bangladesh at Women's Asian Cricket Council tournament; I was not in that game. In 2018, we made it to the World Cup T-20 qualifiers and played against Bangladesh again. Obviously, we didn't play well and stood at 50/9, but just playing against them, and beating other smaller teams shows the progress we have made over the years."

The triumphs also come with challenges. "Not all girls (in the team) are contracted players. Everybody has full-time jobs. They come here for a practice after their work, but by then, they are tired," she says. Humaira herself got a taste of that struggle when she was juggling architecture and cricket. Architecture being a demanding course, the very idea of playing cricket simultaneously seemed like a Herculean task. But the sporting instinct helped her sail through. "There were times when I would finish a class at 6pm and the practice would be at 6.30pm. As a captain, I always wanted to reach at least 15 minutes before time, but that never happened. Being late stressed me out. I would request my professors to allow me to leave early or ask the manager to delay the practice sessions. The first one or two years were hard, but eventually, I found balance. The more experience you get in something, the easier it is to handle it. As soon as I found that balance, I began enjoying both architecture and cricket."

Parents Hamid and Anjum have been participants of Humaira's journey. Sitting in the lobby of the ICC Academy, Anjum recalls one moment when the team was losing. Nervous, she had nearly shut her eyes simply because she couldn't bear to see her daughter being on the losing side. "And then Humaira started bowling and, one by one, was dismissing the opponents. That was a crucial match," says Anjum, with a sigh of relief that may as well have you believe that the match was still in progress. Today, each victory is celebrated through the family's WhatsApp groups, with relatives in hometown Hyderabad (India) cheering every time Humaira goes on the field.

In a world where diversity is becoming a buzzword, Humaira also finds herself answering questions about her hijab. While the idea of a hijab-wearing woman cricketer has inspired many younger women to enter sports (Humaira says it is also empowering in that many girls who wear hijabs have often approached her and admitted that they started playing cricket after watching her), Humaira does find the conversation to be rather limiting. "The hijab has never really been an issue for me," she says. "Scotland team, in fact, had a girl who also wears a hijab, and we kind of hit it off well and shared our experiences." She goes on to admit that she doesn't really like having to answer questions about the hijab. "Ask me about how I am playing, what I am doing in life. If somebody is wearing a cap, would you ask them why they are wearing one? It's 2019 - the hijab should not be the first thing that comes to your mind when you look at a person."

Recently, Humaira was called as a chief guest to her hometown Hyderabad for the opening ceremony of a cricket tournament for boys. "It was nice to see that they called a woman's cricketer for a boy's tournament," she says, evidently thrilled at the gender role reversal. What about the road ahead? "I would love to do this full-time," says Humaira, who is also currently working as a designer and illustrator at the advertising and communication agency, Space Oddity.
anamika@khaleejtimes.com