She bowls over everyone with her talent

[1]

She was just eight years old when legendary cricketer Kapil Dev and his team lifted the World Cup in London in 1983. But the age factor never stopped her from attempting to follow Kapil Dev’s bowling style.

Sub-inspector S. Jayanthi, who emerged the highest individual scorer in the recently-held state police duty meet, recalls that it was on the way back home from school that she started practising the bowler’s action on the road.

“I thought I will make it big in cricket, but finally landed in the police department as sub-inspector. I am planning to make it big here now,” says the daughter of an army personnel, with a confident smile. But her mother was never happy with her for playing cricket like the boys.

She got any cricketing records? “No. I was not a great player. But I was addicted to cricket. I used to bowl and bat and occasionally keep wickets when I played for the state from 1997 to 2003. Earlier, I had captained the school, college and university teams,” discloses Jayanthi.

She is a BCCI-certified, level ‘A’ coach, who was helping the Tamil Nadu women’s cricket team as an assistant till a few years ago.

“I don’t go even for coaching now,” she says regretfully, signalling that cricket has become a closed chapter in her life. She says pensively that she has also given away her white cricket jersey.
When asked about the prizes she won at the police duty meet, she becomes chatty again. She had won first place in medico-legal and fingerprints tests.

Jayanthi, who joined the police force as sub-inspector in 2005, also came second in forensic science and third in crime investigation. This is not the first time she has come out with flying colours at a duty meet. Three years ago, Jayanthi, a postgraduate in Mathematics from Queen Mary’s college in Chennai, was individual topper at the national police duty meet in Bengaluru.

The woman sub-inspector, who earlier worked in Kancheepuram district, feels that there is always more freedom for police personnel in the districts than the city. “Wherever we work, police personnel need to update their knowledge and skills to keep themselves a step ahead of criminals,” she adds wisely.