RAJESHWAR SINGH ‘RAJU’
Dr. Roopali Slathia, a well known player from the State presently working as a Lecturer in Department of Youth Services & Sports Jammu, had been interested in cricket right from her childhood. But during those days despite the fact that cricket fever affected all irrespective of age and gender, girls were forced to concentrate on studies. However, she was lucky to get parents who always inspired her. Her elder sister Major Monika Slathia, an eminent cricketer from the state was a role model for her.
Roopali maintained a beautiful balance between cricket and studies. After having passed Higher Secondary Examinations from JKBOSE, she completed her graduation in Arts from Punjab University, Chandigarh. In addition to it, she also has the privilege of having NIS Diploma in sports coaching cricket from NSN, Patiala with “A” Grade (2006), B.P.Ed & M.P.Ed from RTMU Nagpur University. PHD in Physical Education from Singhania University.
While excelling in Academics, she was pursuing her career in cricket too. She completed level-1, level-2 Cricket coaching from BCCI (2008, 2011) and Level-1 Cricket coaching, Australia Cricket (2016), Basic First Aid Course, Medical Health Centre, Jammu (2010). She has also worked on a project Level-2 Internship, NCA with women’s Indian probable.
If we cast a look at her career as a player, she was an all rounder, a combination of medium pace bowling and batting. It was her immense talent that she got selected in Junior & Senior Indian Camps at Mysore (2004 & 2006). As a player, she has numerous tournaments to her credit that include, Sub Junior National Cricket Championship at Kunrnool (1998), Lucknow (1999), School National Championship Kunmool (2001), All India Inter University Competition Katrikudu (2001), Indore (2002), Pondicherry (2003), Inter Zonal Rani Jhansi Tournament at New Delhi (2002), Surat (2004), Boisar (2006), Inter State Senior One day Tournament (2000 to 2010), Inter State Senior T-20 tournament (2010), Junior Championship _II Leg, Hazaribagh (2004), Indian Zonal Chandra Trapati Tournament Lucknow (2001) & Vishakhapatnam (2004), Inter State Junior North Zone Championship Panchkula (1999), Udhampur (2000), Jallandhar (2002), Sangrur (2003), Jammu (2004) etc.
After playing for the state in juniors as well as seniors category for so many years, she decided to impart training to the aspiring talents and polish them so that they may perform to full potential and get selected for reputed tournaments.
As a coach she has been associated with different initiatives like she has given coaching to U-19 Women’s team of J & K State (2008,2009,2010,2011), J & K Senior Women’s Team (2010,2011), got appointed as ZCA Coach at Indore (2011), Gwalior(2014), Mumbai(2015), Rajkote (2016), Jaipur (2017) etc. She has also rendered her services as a selector of J & K State women cricket team U-19 for different tournaments and has also been a member selection committee for North Zone Team, BCCI Women (2011 & 2015) etc.
In addition to her passion for cricket, she is also fond of reading books and writing. Her Book on cricket are “Rising Spell in Women’s cricket” was well acclaimed not only in sports arena but by the critics also for the contents and presentation. She owes a lot to her father Sh. Jagdish Singh Slathia for whatever she has achieved in her life. It is pertinent to add here that Sachin Tendulkar and Waqar Hussain have also inspired her as she was always fond of watching them play.
Roopali is very much right when she advocates that, that there is no infrastructure in our state as far as sports are concerned. Merely a stadium serves no purpose at all. If we compare the facilities available to sports persons in the rest of the country, then unfortunately despite having a lot of potential in every sport, we lack far-far behind when it comes to execution of talent.
Says Roopali, “If we cast a look at women cricket only, then we have promising players from Jammu Province as well as Kashmir Valley who can compete with any of the player from the rest of country and be a part of national team. But our talent has to encouraged in such a way that they should be able to come up to that level which is possible only if Government as well as private organizations extend full support to aspiring talent. At the same time, there is no job guarantee for sports persons which poses all threats for financial security. State Government should plan a strategy like in other states so that more youths opt for sports as a career and come ahead without thinking of future implications and perform to the best of potential”
One should hope that Government shall come ahead with a proper strategy for sports and offer basic infrastructure to all sports so that talent gets a proper platform, direction and execution as well. Let me conclude with a hope that, of course, individual efforts have to be there but a helping hand takes you to desired destination with ease and confidence.
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