Asha Sobhana with Aaron George Thomas
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
When allrounder Asha Sobhana made her international debut against Bangladesh on May 6, 2024, becoming the oldest Indian woman cricketer to make her debut at the age of 33 years and 51 days, her childhood coach Aaron George Thomas was watching the game in his home in Kumarapuram, Thiruvananthapuram. “She played beautifully; it didn’t seem like she was playing an international game for the first time,” says Aaron about Asha’s performance in the match where she scalped two wickets in three overs, giving away just 18 runs.
On October 4, as India faced New Zealand in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, Asha was the first Malayali to play in an ICC Women’s World Cup, and Aaron, a coach who saw his star pupil at the most important cricketing competition in the world. Despite India’s crushing defeat against the Kiwis, Asha dismissed the dangerous opening batter Georgia Plimmer, who scored a blistering 34 runs in 23 balls.
Varied roles
Aaron, 44, is two decades old as a cricket coach, having started in 2003 by managing a few clubs in the district. In 2004, he became the coach of the Kerala Women’s Senior Cricket team after a stint as the coach of All Saints College in Thiruvananthapuram. From 2007 to 2018, he was a part of the Kerala State men’s team for the Ranji Trophy as a coaching staff. In the mid-2000s, Aaron was one of the first people from Kerala to be part of the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s panel of scorers. He is also a performance analyst who travels regularly with the India Under-19 men and India A teams; he was recently, part of Aries Kollam Sailors, who won the inaugural edition of the Kerala Cricket League, a state-level T20 tournament. Also, Aaron still plays club cricket as an opening batsman in Thiruvananthapuram A Division and has played with former stalwarts from Kerala such as Raiphi Gomez, Padmanabhan Prasanth, Rohan Prem, Sony Cheruvathur and so on.
Aaron George Thomas as analyst with Kerala Ranji Men’s team in Nagpur in 2007
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Journey with Asha
“I have known Asha since 2004. We met at a camp for women cricketers in Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) in Kochi,” says Aaron, who prides himself in bringing young players to the Kerala women’s side. He adds that this camp in Kochi is where he met the players who dominated the state side for the next few years such as Asha Sobhana, AJ Aswathymol, P Rakhi, PS Ameena, T Shani and Jincy George.
In a YouTube video posted by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru during their 2024 season, Asha remembers, “My coach Aaron sir used to give me money for a week’s bus fare to focus only on cricket. He used to make sure that after every practice, he would take me out for orange juice.” When asked about this, Aaron says, “She would come to camp straight after school, and their family was also not in a condition to spend a lot. It’s not like I had much either, but I tried to do whatever I could.”
Coach Aaron with Asha as a teenager
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Until the age of 18, Asha trained with Aaron. Then she received a call from the South Central Railway (SCR) and left for Hyderabad. She represented SCR for 10 years before joining the Puducherry team in 2022. In 2023, she was signed by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru for the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League at a price of ₹10 lakh. The team retained her for the 2024 edition, a decision proven right as she scalped 12 wickets in 10 matches at an economy rate of 7.11 runs. She was the second-highest wicket-taker of the tournament with her right-arm leg break. Her performance of 5-22 against UP Warriorz in the second game of the season also made her the first Indian women’s player to take a five-wicket haul in WPL.
“She was part of the National Cricket Academy and Zonal Cricket Academy coaching camps from a young age. She is fortunate that she got to work with a lot of good coaches,” says Aaron, adding “She would come to me to train when she was in the city.”
Fillip to women’s cricket
With two out of 15 people (Asha Sobhana, and Sajana Sajeevan) in the current World Cup squad emerging from Kerala, Aaron thinks that Kerala women’s cricket has gained good momentum in the country. He says, “Kerala has improved a lot. Back then, there wasn’t a lot of exposure for the women’s cricket team; they would play district games and then go directly to state matches. But this changed with the likes of the Kerala Cricket Association’s Pink tournament, the Comrade Kodiyeri Balakrishnan Women’s Cricket T20 Tournament in Kannur and other tournaments as well. There are also cricket academies specifically for women.”
Aaron adds, “There are a lot of girls who are emerging as well. There’s Najila who plays for the Under-19 women’s team and Joshitha, who is part of the camps as well.”
Aaron, a former Pathanamthitta player, is glad to see the spike in interest among the girls, currently training around 15 girls in his academy with a few who are five to six years old. “We have a few players from classes eight and 10 and some seniors who are around 23 years old,” he says.
Aaron with Sanju Samson and Asha Sobhana
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Having also coached Sanju Samson since he was 13 years old, coach Aaron considers the biggest highlight of his career to be Sanju’s recent T20 men’s World Cup victory. “It was a great thrill to see him hold the trophy in his hands,” Aaron says. The coach is also glad about how players like Sanju and Asha, who are from Thiruvananthapuram, give back to the local players by donating their kits to those who perform well. Considering the high price of quality cricket kits, Aaron feels fortunate that the players of today are investing in the players of the future.
Published – October 09, 2024 03:39 pm IST
