WPL 2024: Jay Shah Gives Shout Out To India's First Female Pitch Curator Jacintha Kalyan

The Women’s Premier League (WPL) has been reaching a new milestone every season. The franchise tournament is hugely credited for changing the landscape of women’s cricket across the globe. In another effort to break the gender norms, the pitch curator duties of the ongoing edition have been bestowed upon a woman – Jacintha Kalyan. BCCI secretary Jay Shah has now come forward to congratulate Jacintha on becoming India’s first-ever female pitch curator.

In a long note on X (formerly Twitter), Shah emphasised why Jacintha’s participation in this WPL marks “a significant turning point” in cricket as it highlights “the evolving landscape of the sport in India”.

“In a historic stride for Indian cricket, Jacintha Kalyan has become the trailblazing pioneer as the first female cricket pitch curator in our nation. She embodies the essence of determination and the will to break barriers,” he wrote on the microblogging site.

According to Jay Shah, the WPL is not only meant to provide the platform to the women’s cricketers in the world but also to some “extraordinary individuals like Jacintha Kalyan, whose tireless efforts behind the scenes contribute immensely to the success of the game.”

Jacintha Kalyan has worked for the Karnataka State Cricket Association for over three decades before being called up to oversee pitch curation in the second season of the WPL. She is now stationed at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru where the first half of the group league is underway.

The official X account of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) dropped a special video featuring Kalyan and some glimpses of her work schedule. She cleared the BCCI curatorship exam in 2018 and worked as an admin for the Karnataka State Cricket Association before shifting her focus to the on-field job.

Speaking about her WPL assignment, Jacintha said, “This is actually very challenging. Back-to-back matches every day. There are 11 matches in Bengaluru and we are playing them on four pitches.”

After two rounds of league matches are over, Royal Challengers Bangalore are sitting at the top of the WPL table, having won both matches. They are followed by reigning champions Mumbai Indians, who have the same points.