Thrissur, May 23 (IANS) When 17-year-old Namrata Vinoth walks into the Athreya Cricket Ground in Kerala’s Thrissur on Sunday morning, it will not just be another local cricket match.

For the teenager with cricket running deep through her veins, it will mark the beginning of a brand new journey, as a cricket umpire.

Namrata will officiate in her ‘debut’ match between the Trichur District Cricket Association EC Committee/Selectors and the Palakkad District Association EC Committee/Selectors, after clearing the written examination in umpiring.

For most teenagers, such a moment could be nerve-racking.

But Namrata appears remarkably unruffled.

“What’s the big deal?” she asks with a laugh.

“I know being tense only complicates things. I prefer to stay cool and calm so I can perform better. My mother’s feelings are understandable.”

Her mother, however, admits she is far from calm.

“Yes, I’m a bit tense because I know what happens in a cricket match,” says Niketha with a smile.

“Perhaps Namrata is too young to fully realise what a real match situation can be like. One thing that makes me happy is that she isn’t nervous.”

Niketha knows the pressures of cricket better than most.

A former Kerala women’s cricketer, she later rose to become Chairperson of the Kerala Women’s Selection Committee and also led the South Zone selection panel.

The cricketing pedigree in the family does not end there.

Namrata’s aunt, Vilasini Nair, her father’s sister, also played for Kerala and now serves as a Southern Railway coach-cum-player, besides being a member of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association selection committee.

Yet, despite the formidable cricketing lineage surrounding her, Namrata carries none of the weight of expectation.

Friends describe her as cheerful and carefree, someone equally at ease on stage as on the cricket field.

An accomplished singer and dancer since childhood, she has already faced audiences far larger than the one she will encounter on Sunday.

But this time, the applause will give way to appeals, close calls and raised voices and right in the middle of it all will stand a composed teenager quietly beginning her own chapter in Kerala cricket.

–IANS

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