“My Road Was Not Easy, But I Worked My Way to the Top” – Munsamy

A passion to succeed in a man’s world is a long and tough journey. I am glad that I have traveled this path as it has taught me so much about myself. A small-town girl, living a big city girl’s life with her small-town principles, values and morals.

I look back on where I started and how far I have come, at times it feels like a dream. I started out as scorer at my local cricket union and I was quite glad to just be part of sport. After a few weeks, scoring matches on a Saturday or Sunday became the way of life for me. I also got involved in mini cricket as I believe that all children should have the chance to play the sport and to just have fun.

Soon I became a well-known face within Tongaat Cricket Union. I worked hard at being a good scorer, hence I sacrificed a lot of my family time. Being the only female, I faced a lot of challenges. I always had to work 10 times harder & work 10 times faster just so that I could get to the next level of where I wanted to be. If I did not believe I could achieve my goals or dreams I would not be where I am today.

As a female it is hard so hard at times. I have a full-time career in finance, a family and cricket, so how did I make it all work? I had to find a balance and once I found the balance, life became a breeze. But then, that is what we women are good at! We can make things work no matter what life throws at us.

Women in sport face challenges every day from sponsorships, to not getting enough media coverage and sometimes their achievements fall below the radar and that is sad because women are achieving so much. The gsport Foundation has been very instrumental in shinning the light on women’s sport. In recent times, we have seen a considerable increase of focus on women’s sport.

“I fell, I cut my hands, bruised my knees but I got back up and worked my way to the top because I believed in myself.” – Selina Munsamy

Striving for women’s cricket is my passion as I feel that so much more can be done for girls’ cricket. More emphasis needs to be placed at school level for girls to play cricket. We should be more competitive at school level with girl’s cricket. I recently watched the Varsity Cricket Tournament and I was thinking it would be awesome if all the girls that played schools cricket and went off to University after completing High School were able to play in a tournament like that at University level. If we could have school cricket for boys, why can’t we have university cricket for girls? If the boys can enjoy sport and education, then so it may be for the opposite gender. We see more emphasis on the boy’s cricket than we do females, but times are changing, and girls are stepping up and showing what they are made off.

With PitchVision live streaming and Websports covering online scoring, we are able to follow CSA women’s tournaments. With the start of the CSA Women’s Super League that kicked off on the weekend of 6th September, it was huge step from CSA to give the ladies their very own tournament. I think that is great and it gives the lesser unknown provincial players a chance to step up and show their skills on the big stage. It also gives them a chance to play amongst the Protea players and to get some experience. It is also a great motivator to want to be better on the field. Maybe we too can enjoy our own Women’s MSL one day soon.

I started as a little girl wanting to sit up in the Presidential Box at Kingsmead Stadium in Durban, today, I am the Manager to the KZN Woman’s Cricket team. I was also a 2019 Momentum gsport Supporter of the Year finalist. My road was not easy, it was long and hard. I fell, I cut my hands, bruised my knees but I got back up and worked my way to the top because I believed in myself. I am daughter, a sister, an aunt, a friend, a work colleague, a special someone to a special guy, but most importantly I am me and I make #NoApologyForMYSuccess as a Game Changer on the corporate front or as a sports achiever. To every girl out there, believe in yourself, work hard, you can have it all, but you must want it bad enough and only you can make it happen.

Photo 1 Caption: 2019 Momentum gsport Awards Supporter of the Year finalist, Selina Munsamy pictured at the Deck @ Wanderers venue in Johannesburg. Photo: Hodren Naidoo

With editing by gsport