How six Malayali women powered Malta’s win over Romania in their first T20 international

Shamla Cholassery was living an ordinary life in the hillside village of Mankada in Kerala’s Malappuram district till 2019 with hopes of one day flying abroad just like countless others in her state. Like hundreds of women in Kerala’s many villages, Shamla too had chosen nursing as a profession to give wings to her flight. The ‘professionally trained skilled Malayali nurse’ is a much sought after ‘international brand’. What attracts many women to nursing is that it provides one of the fastest and easiest ways to find a job abroad. With her eyes set on that goal, Shamla pursued a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Al-Shifa College of Nursing at Perinthalmanna in Malappuram.

With a degree in hand in 2015, Shamla worked in a few hospitals in Delhi and Kerala till 2019. In between, she took short breaks to prepare for IELTS and cleared the exam in 2019 to build a nursing career in some foreign country. She had no clue she will land in a country she hadn’t even heard of and that a new career opportunity would change her life.
There are hundreds of recruiting agencies in Kerala that help nurses and nursing students build a career abroad. With the help of one such agency, Shamla landed in a small European country, Malta, on August 14, 2019.

The Republic of Malta, a small island country, part of European Union, lies in the Mediterranean Sea. With just about 5.25 lakh people inhabiting the island country, its population is smaller than any of Kerala’s 14 districts.

When Shamla landed in Malta all she knew was that she has to clear a written exam to be registered as a nurse there. She never expected anything more than passing the exam and proving herself eligible to work as a nurse in Malta. There was no way for her to know what life had in store.

Cut to 2022, 29-year-old Shamla is the captain of Malta’s women’s cricket team. The Maltian women’s team, which has not one but six Malayali women, won their first international match with Romania in August this year. Shamla’s team, in their debut series in International T20, beat Romania women 3-0 to win the continental cup. The Maltese women, led by all-rounder Shamla Cholassery, dominated all the three matches beating the Romanian women comprehensively.

Not only for Shamla, but for her teammates — Anupama Rameshan, Cuckoo Kurian, Anvy Vimal, Ramya Vipin and Aneeta Santhosh — this is more than a dream come true because they never even in the wildest of their dreams imagined being a cricketer. Like hundreds of Malayali girls, they also migrated to Europe to become nurses and be able to send money back home.

For none of the six ‘nurses-turned-cricketers’ Malta was the first choice to pursue a career, forget living a life. Had it not been for the advice of the recruiting agencies, none of them would have landed in Malta.

Today, however, the six nurses have become proud members of the women’s T20 cricket team that got full international status in April 2018. On August 27, Malta women, aged 24 to 34 years, played their first World T20 International against Romania during the 2022 Women’s Continental Cup and won.

For Anupama Rameshan, the ‘player of the match’ against Romania, landing in the Republic of Malta wasn’t all a matter of chance but a thought through move. Anupama’s brother and sister-in-law are both nurses who chose Malta to pursue their careers. In 2017, Anupama followed them to the island nation to work as a nurse after graduating from the SGHS College of Nursing in Bengaluru. Before moving to the Mediterranean island, she worked in several hospitals in Kerala. Like Shamla, Anupama also started her career as a ‘care assistant’ and later cleared the adaptation process and joined as a staff nurse at Mater Dei Hospital, the only government hospital in Malta, where Shamla also joined in 2020.
Entry into cricket was quite accidental.

“There was a public call by the Malta Cricket Association for joining the women’s team. A friend forwarded this message to me and encouraged me to try. Apart from my childhood experiences of playing with cousins for fun, I had no connection with cricket. I was more fond of football as I hail from Malappuram, which is known for its football mania,” recollects Shamla. Jamsheed, Shamla’s husband who also migrated with his wife, is a footballer who plays in the local clubs in Malta.

Despite the hesitation, Shamla decided to give it a try with the sole intention of having some fun after the long and tedious hours of work. “I have never thought of becoming a professional player, the coach also did not give us any pressure, we were received with a warm welcome and he was patient enough to give us training, starting from the basics. Before we even knew it, we were in love with cricket,” Shamla tells The Federal.

If Shamla was encouraged by a friend to give it a try, Anupama’s motivation came from Shamla.

“My brother and his wife were in Malta. When they migrated to New Zealand, I also wanted to go with them, but I changed my mind after joining the team. Now, I have no plans to leave Malta,” Anupama tells The Federal.

So great is the love the women have for the game that they are ready to put in all the blood and sweat it requires to train after their 12-hour shifts at work.

“All of us have 12 hours duty. If we are working in the day shift, from 7 am to 7 pm, we go for practice by 9 at night. We usually practice for three to four hours and sleep by 2 am. The sleeping hours have shortened, we sleep for three to four hours most of the day,” says Shamla. Though it’s taxing on the body, none of them wants to quit. “We are ready to work as hard as required by our coach Lee Tuck. We all want to continue the game and to win many more matches. It is very exciting to represent another country in an internationally acclaimed game like cricket,” she adds.

While Shamla and Anupama found it more or less easy in Malta, another member of their team and a fellow Malayali was considering leaving Malta at one point.

Cuckoo Kurian, who hails from Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district, completed a degree in nursing from a private nursing college in Nellur in Andhra Pradesh in 2014. While working for as a nurse in India, Cuckoo came to know about Malta through a recruiting agency.
Cuckoo’s initial years in Malta, were however, rough. After she arrived in 2018, she had to wait for a job. “I did part time jobs and it was a tough time. I did not get the job as promised by the agency when I arrived here. I even thought of returning to Kerala,” Cuckoo told The Federal.

Later, however, Cuckoo got employed in a Geriatric Care home as a care assistant. Like Shamla and Anupama, Cuckoo also got to know of the opening in the women’s cricket team from friends. “I have not seen or heard of girls playing cricket here. Generally, Malta is a football-loving country. Initially, I was reluctant, but my husband strongly encouraged me,” Cuckoo says.

Another player Anvy Vimal’s story mirrors the experiences of Shamla, Anupama and Cuckoo. Hailing from Thrissur, Anvy too had quite an ordinary life as a nurse till 2020 after graduating from a nursing college in Bengaluru in 2010. Anvy migrated to Malta in 2017 with many hopes and expectation, none of which included becoming a cricketer.

“I had very limited exposure to sports. I had participated in sports events when I was a student. Apart from that cricket was an idea completely new to me. Like others, I too wanted to experience the fun of practising and playing cricket to get rid of the ennui beset by the long hours of work,” Anvy says.

The women’s cricket team of Malta has 20 women none of whom is a native of Malta. As Shamla, Anupama and Anvy pointed out, cricket was an alien sport to the people of Malta.
So, fow did the Malta Cricket Association build a team, train the members and win a match?

“When I went looking for women interested in learning cricket, the response was overwhelming. In the beginning there were 22 women, which was a very good response. We have spent a substantial amount of time to build the team. We have arranged free transportation for the girls, full training kits, match kits and free playing equipment. Our objective was to set up a team that can compete in quality matches,” says Lee Tuck, the team’s coach, who was born and brought up in South Africa and got an early exposure to the sport.

Lee, in a free-wheeling conversation with The Federal, explained how he found the players, nurtured their skills and prepared them to play the first match with a foreign country.
“Majority of the players are from foreign countries, including England, South Africa, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Philippines. There are only a few natives involved in the making of the team. Being a foreigner, you have to face the question, what is your motive and why do you play for Malta,” says Lee.

The team selection was done in January 2022 and the training sessions started in February. “The first thing we needed to do was to get some women come out and play cricket in Malta. Cricket is seen as a men’s sport here. With support from the local government over the last two-three years, the game is changing dramatically in the country. We had to get the women together and form a team at international level,” Lee told The Federal.
“None of these girls had exposure to cricket before. Most of them took the bat and held the ball for the first time in their lives. But beating all hurdles, the team won the first match which is the result of their hard work and dedication,” Lee said.

What proved to be icing on the cake was when Lee heard members of the Romanian men’s team telling the women players of their country how they could learn from the Maltian players.

“My youngest player is 24 years old and had never played cricket before. The flight to Romania was delayed and they got hardly three hours of sleep before getting onto the ground. Despite all this, they played exceptionally well. The Romanian coach could not believe that these women have not played cricket before,” says Lee.

What’s helping is the support from the government. “When we started, we had only one ground to play, now there are two ICC-standard fields,” he said.

But why cricket?

All Malayali players who The Federal spoke to said that they started just for fun and continue to be in nursing as it is their primary career and helps them earn a living. But if ever there is a chance to shift completely to cricket as full-times, they would choose cricket over nursing.

“We have to work, we need money. That was the primary objective of coming to Malta. But if there is a chance, we are ready to make the shift,” says Anupama.

It isn’t just the women who have been surprised by the change of heart for the sport. Coach Lee’s perspective towards the game has also changed.

“When the sessions started, I was not worried about winning the matches. All I wanted was for them to enjoy playing. But now I know this team can go miles ahead and must,” he said.

For Lee, it’s not just about cricket. “This is also about giving the women new life skills. This teaches them how to handle different situations and environments. Malta is a highly male-dominated society. Cricket may help these women to adapt to change, especially when they are away from their culture and country,” says Lee.