Straight Drive with Braveheart Rakshita

The moment you meet up with this girl, one thing that hits you on your face is her infectious smile and bubbly enthusiasm. She has seen the ups and downs of life, yet is willing to battle it out. Meet up with our braveheart Rakshita- first woman cricketer of Gen-next Cricket Institute in this weeks column of Straight Drive.

Hi Rakshita, and welcome to Gen-next and our weekly blog Straight Drive. For our readers Rakshita is a native of Mangalore and an aspiring Wicket-keeper batswoman. Her dream currently is to don the Indian Blues. For that to happen she needs to cross the first hurdle which is the selection into the Women's Karnataka State Team.

On Her Love for the Game of Cricket:

Well there is a very interesting story here. She fell in love with Cricket because of MS Dhoni. She like a child professes her love for MSD. The first time she saw MSD on TV, during the epic innings at Vizag versus Pakistan, that sort of spurred her on and she was head over heels in love with MSD, to such an extent that she has a tatoo inscribed on her hand with the initials MSD. 

Life had to move on, MSD got married and our braveheart could not take it at all, She was down with Fever for 15 days. Her love for the game continues unabated and of course she continues to be a die hard MSD fan. She has been an RJ with 92.7 Big FM in Mangalore and it was during this stint that she got to interview MSD. She quizzed him about his epic movie and next day she resigned from the job, perhaps having realized her dream. Rakshita has one more act up her sleeve, she plans to have one more tatoo on her arm this time around it will be the face of her hero MSD. MSD has left a message for her saying that he would like to see the Tatoo first before it goes viral on social media.

How did she reach Gen-next:

One night she had a dream that she was training with Ashwin. At this point of time, she never knew anything about Gen-next.While browsing through Ashwin's profile on Instagram, Rakshita came across Gen-next, rest is history and her dream being realized. Today she even got to meet her favorite bowler in flesh and blood. 

Rakshita a Braveheart:

Definitely she is a braveheart. She could well be a role model for all women wanting to take up a sport. In a game that is dominated by her male counterparts, she has no qualms of playing it straight. She has had a tough going, not being encouraged by near and dear ones, a knee injury to cope up with, the rehab program to get her back to shape, and then a Karnataka state selection coming up in the month of September, nothing bothers her, sight is on her goal and she is ready to lock horns with a steely resolve.

Her Coaching stint at Gen-next:

She is full of praise for the Coaching being imparted here. She feels that here at Gen-next care is taken to ensure that each cricketer gets individual attention and that makes a huge difference. She has coached under Coach Srinivasan, Coach Arvind and Coach Santosh. Thanks Rakshita for your kind words, much valued.

By the way we have a multi talented personality out here, Rakshita is a RJ and a movie star as well. She has acted in two Kannada movies. Wow!!! Way to Go!!! Rakshita. She considers Kannada Super Star Sudeep as her mentor who has encouraged her to play the game of cricket, come what may.

Her Dream and Her Advice to Fellow Women Cricketers

She wants to don the Indian colours, Mithali Raj happens to be her favorite Indian Cricketer. She signs off by saying that Women in India make a lot of personal sacrifices at the cost of a professional career. She says that Women should definitely dare to dream and realize those dreams by overcoming all the challenges that come their way. They should at any cost not give up.

On behalf of Gen-next  we wish you well, and hope that your dreams come true,and we shall strive to keep maintaining the high standards of coaching that we are known for.