Photo Credit: Cricket NSW
At the National Indigenous Cricket Championships (NICC), the NSW women’s team opening batter, a Wiradjuri woman, had travelled to Alice Springs last week thinking she would simply have fun playing cricket and meet her teammates.
Dharmini Chauhan, 22, had missed three editions of the NICC due to Covid-19 and her new job last year. This year, going in, she was simply happy to be back.
On February 26, Chauhan experienced what she calls one of the most memorable moments of her young cricketing career. Chauhan was the top scorer at the NICC finals with 63 runs off 51 balls, propelling NSW to a championship win against Queensland after a loss in the finals last year.
Her performance throughout the series won her four of the five individual women’s category awards at the NICC: Player of the Series, Player of the Finals, Most Wickets and Most Runs.
Chauhan, who lives in Wollongong, is a true child of cricket. Her father Nilesh Chauhan is Indian-origin and lived in Britain before he migrated to Australia in 1997. He played cricket in England and joined the Wollongong District Cricket Club (WDCC) when he moved to the NSW coastal town.
Chauhan’s parents met at a cricket field. When she was all of six, she and her younger brother started playing Cricket Blast. By the age of 9, she was part of the WDCC U10 team. In five years, she was also playing for Sydney’s city clubs, Campbelltown, Parramatta, and Bankstown Sports, her parents taking turns to drive her to and from Wollongong for every match, every weekend.
At 13, Chauhan was selected to play for the U15 NSW Country team in Tasmania. At 16, she was selected for the first Australian Indigenous women’s team that toured the UK in 2018, and also made it to the NSW Metro side that year.
She was also part of a Cricket Australia ad featuring Ash Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Nathan Lyon, and other national players along with club cricketers and backyard cricketers. [Video].
Chauhan has had her best club season playing for Bankstown Sports Cricket Club this year, scoring a few hundreds, and the NICC awards are a great way to sign off for the season. Chauhan says she performs her best when she’s having fun. “I was meeting with my teammates at the NICC, they’re like family,” she said. The fact that she carried home most of the awards, is incidental.
