Jhulan Goswami’s mother and brother in Chakdah on Tuesday. A Telegraph picture

Chakdah: When Jharna Goswami saw her daughter Jhulan holding the ICC’s Women’s Cricketer of the Year award on TV Monday night, she could not hold back her tears.

Her mind went back to a night in 2000 when she locked the gates for three hours after Jhulan had returned late. The 18-year-old was away playing in a village tournament several kilometres away and it was tough for Jharna to accept that her daughter would be away for so long.

“I asked her to go out of the house and locked the door on a wintry night. She spent about three hours under the open sky till her father opened the door at around 3am,” said Jharna.

Jhulon’s father Nisith, an Air India employee, also, like Jharna, did not want Jhulan to be a cricketer. “But he did not protest the way I did,” said Jharna.

Today Jharna thinks she made a mistake, perhaps because she did not understand cricket. “When she comes back home this week, the first thing I will do is apologise for punishing her that day,” said Jharna. Jhulan is the eldest among three siblings — sister Jhumpa is a BA student, and brother Kunal, an English honours student at Bagula college.

“Jhumpa sacrificed her education for cricket and studied up to Madhyamik. She grew up playing cricket with boys of her age group in this small town. The neighbours lost no opportunity to abuse me. They often asked me how I could allow a girl of her age to play with boys of the locality,” said her mother.

“Sometimes I would lose cool and slap her. But I lost to her determination at the end of the day,” she added.

According to aunt Krishna Maitra, it was never easy for Jhulan.

“She did not get chance to bat and only bowled. Batting was the privilege of the boys,” said Krishna. Jhulan never protested, but kept bowling.

Today when television channels are showing her success story, the same boys, who once did not let her touch the bat, same neighbours who scolded her mother for allowing a girl to play cricket with the boys, geared up to celebrate.