Srinagar: Sakina Akhtar, as the only qualified cricket coach in Kashmir, is both a maverick and a pioneer.

The journey for Sakina, who has a reputation to live up to, which she takes that very seriously, hasn't always been easy.

She had to fight hard to convince her family to let her take up the ‘Gentleman's Game’. She was vice-captain of the Kashmir state team in the CK Nayudu under-19 tournament in 1999. She scored the most runs, took the most wickets, and was adjudged the Woman of the Series. But when she failed to make it to the national team, Sakina decided to turn to coaching.

“I couldn't play in the Indian team because I didn't have a good coach. There are many others like me. I don't want anybody else to suffer like me,” says Sakina.

Sakina is the only coach in Kashmir with a degree from the National Institute of Sports - a qualification that's got her the job of coach of both the men and women's cricket teams at Kashmir University. But it's Sakina's female students who are the most grateful.

“There are many things that only a woman coach can understand, that we can't speak about to a male coach,” says cricket trainee, Isma.im