How 9-year-old Jemimah Rodrigues was selected in Maharashtra U19 hockey team

Jemimah Rodrigues was honoured with the Shiv Chhatrapati State Sports Award – Maharashtra's highest sporting award on Friday.

Jemimah, a regular feature in the Indian women's cricket team, was handed Rs 3 lakh and a memento in an event organised at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune.

Interestingly, it was at this very ground that Jemimah's sporting endeavors took off as a 9-year-old girl. It, however, was not in cricket – the sport she now plays professionally – but in hockey.

The now 24-year-old Jemimah had accompanied her father Ivan Rodrigues to the Balewadi Sports Complex then. He encouraged her pre-teen daughter to try out for the U19 state hockey selections which were underway in the ground.

The idea was not to get Jemimah into hockey but just to have her experience how sports trials work.

"When someone passed me the ball I reverse scooped it at the right-hand side corner," recalled Jemimah in a social media post. "And the people sitting outside along with the guest of honor were amazed.

"And he's like, who's that girl? That girl has to be there. That's the story of how I got my first Maharashtra selection.

"Now I am 24 and I got this award – Shiv Chhatrapati State Sports Award – which is the highest sports honour in the state of Maharashtra," she added.

More than a decade-and-a-half since that moment, Jemimah is now a mainstay with the Indian women's cricket team. She played a vital role in India's gold medal win at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou and the silver medal win at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.