the albees that was the name of the first ladies cricket team in bombay it was short for aloo bamjee the purposeful parsi woman who used to stride into the cricket club of india lawns every saturday with a handfan a hat and a heckle in a mini morris driven by her brotherinlaw kawas bamjeea maternal childless widowwould arrive bearing washed socks stockings and sandwiches for the braided batters practicing in the nets and suffix their illtimed shots with her goto interjection uppish had she been alive bamjeewho had never wielded a willowwould have hit an offthefield century this month on her birth centenary on december 28 though you re not likely to wake up to a google doodle of this shorthaired pioneer of womens cricket despite having acquainted the citys softballplaying young girls with the season ball in 1969 bombayfour years before the indian womens cricket association was bornbamjee remains digitally untraceable her legacy bereft of even a wikipedia page i doubt the current xi know who mrs bamjee was says former albeeite shobha pandit she is the reason they arealoo bamjee with the albees teama cci member bamjee began nursing womens cricket with a singleminded fervour after the death of her husband homi the circulars she sent to schools and colleges drew in a motley bunch of teens and future bankers who would find bamjee standing her ground against genderbased concessions during their first meeting with legendary batsman vijay merchant when hed advise using a soft ball and smaller boundary lines besides cci grants for biweekly practice sessions bamjee arranged for raj singh dungarpur and arvind apte to coach the girls aged 16 to 23 years away from the eyes of skeptics who were hungry to know will they be bowling underarm will they wear sarees sarees and pinafores would be hastily shed and white slacks left behind by male players donned in the ladies cloak room twice a week the april sun would truncate their matches to 20 overs long before t20 mrs bamjee bought gloves and bats for the girls who could not afford them says albees former captain rashna vaid remembering the brokenhindispouting founder who would take the girls dustridden mittens and stockings home to get them washed for the next session she was like a mother hen says behroze edulji about bamjee who would demand hard work and practice in exchange for imported chocolates and parsi delicacies along with her sister dianawho used to play tennisball cricket with the boys at badhwar parkbehroze would head during the monsoons to bamjees vast home overlooking wankhede stadium she would hang a ball in the doorway recalls behroze we used to practise hitting there the batters were called batswomen or broadly the eves then bats had to be raised to silence crude remarks on the street kits had to be shared and compliments earned people used to scoff at us says former batswoman silloo medhora recalling the prevelcro times when she would wait for the wicketkeeper to