By Partha Pratim Roy in Dubai
The UAE Women are a young side making strides in world cricket. They are being led by an energetic captain, Esha Oza, and have plenty of young players at their disposal. With over 100 appearances for the UAE, Theertha Satish is one of them. Having moved to Dubai from Chennai at the age of six, she made her debut for the UAE at 17. Since then, she has not just established herself as a safe wicketkeeper, but has also risen to become UAE’s second-highest run-getter in T20Is.
The UAE, who are in the middle of the Women’s Asia Cup, suffered a massive loss in the first match against defending champions Sri Lanka and have to win their other games to have a chance of making it to the next round.
In a chat with The Crichub, Theertha discusses her career, he equation with her skipper Oza, how a Tamil film prompted her to take up cricket and more
The Crichub (TCH): Tell me about your experience in the Asia Cup. It has not gotten off to a good start, but do you believe UAE can bounce back in the remaining matches? Which areas in particular have you talked about as a team that you need to work on?
Theertha Satish (TS): See, what the match was, it was pretty disappointing. I mean, you work so hard, you play so hard, you train so hard to actually get your best foot forward.
Unfortunately, that’s not how it went the other day. And all you can do is still put your 100% effort, show up, we’re still training. We had gym sessions today, and we’re putting all our efforts that we can into our controllables and we’re going to come strong every game, like regardless of which team it is. That’s what, whoever we’re playing, we’re still going to do what’s in our control.
We’re going to show up, we’re going to give our 100%, and we’re going to put our best foot forward, and hopefully the results will take care of themselves. But you just have to believe and keep putting our best foot forward.
TCH: How has it been to be playing under Esha Oza for the last 3 years? How do you think she has been as a leader and what sort of advice has she given you that may have helped you in any way?
TS: I think it’s an honour to play under her. I think she’s probably one of the calmest people I’ve seen. She respects everyone so well, and she takes everyone under her wing so well. She’s a true leader. She leads from the front.
But at the same time, it’s not like she’s on a pedestal. She looks and treats herself like every other player. And she listens to everyone, and it’s just an honour playing with her. She’s also so knowledgeable, technically and about the game. It’s just incredible having those cricket talks or even normal talks with her. She’s just a fun person to be around.
TCH: So as we are talking about the captain in the cricket field, generally for the fielding side, generally the wicketkeeper is the second captain we can consider. Do you give her any advice as to what has to be done in certain situations, and could you recall an instance when it has clicked?
TS: I think stuff like this happens every game. We definitely talk a lot about cricket and like I said, field placements. I look at cricket as a chess game, except we require execution as well.
In chess, you just have to move a piece. But here the bowler actually has to bowl that ball and it has to play out the same way. And I think we have many moments like that. We are always talking about that. If an idea comes and it’s like, it’s very open. Like if I have a thought or something in the game, I have no hesitation.
I tell Oza, like, okay, this is what I’m thinking. Do you think it will work? And many times she’s also taken it and many times her gut feeling has also said something and it’s gone either way. So there’s just tons like every match, everything, there’s always a moment like that.
TCH: You are one of those people who played at the highest level before playing in the Under-19 World Cup in 2023. How was it to feature in the tournament at the back of so much experience at the senior level? How do you think that helped you and your team?
TS: I think the senior national team, when I first came into it, it was more just me going and just batting, batting, batting and coming out. But I think under-19 and captaining the under-19, it opened a new perspective in cricket. Like before that, in the under-19s, I never really thought about anything tactically. I went, I saw the ball, I batted, I came. That’s about it.
But once I played the under-19s, having to plan before a game for each bowler, where the field setting is. I just realised there’s a whole new ball game to cricket. So once I came back to the senior team after the under-19s, I just saw there’s more to what I initially saw in cricket.
TCH: Tell me about your journey in cricket. You were born in Chennai and now you are playing for the UAE at the highest level. How did that happen and how is the journey been for you so far?
TS: I moved to Dubai from Chennai when I was 6 years old. My dad got a transfer in his job. So at that time I wasn’t playing cricket seriously or anything. I would go to Chennai every year for summer vacations, and at that time gully cricket was the norm in Chennai. So I just used to play gully cricket back then.
Cricket was never anything serious for me. But after I came here and once I was 15 years old, I watched a movie called Kanaa. It’s a Tamil movie and after watching it, there was a development program for under-19s here.
And I got to know about it, and I was like, why not give it a shot after watching the movie. So I just gave it a shot, and things just fell into place, and this is where it led me.
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