Representation in Sports: Through the Lens of a Woman and a Refugee

If you had asked me in 2018, who was my favourite woman cricketer, I would have probably responded with: ‘We have a national women's cricket team? I have never heard them play!’ 

Heck, even if you ask me who my favourite cricket player is today, my answer would still be one of the men; after all, what is cricket if not the male-dominated sport we have been brainwashed to endorse and support? A woman playing the game may not be that hard of a pill to swallow today but it most definitely was half a decade ago – which brings me to the importance of representation in sports. 

A person must see people like them out in the world – because no one is entirely alone or singularly experiencing something in life. Through representation in media, especially cinema, we try to remind someone out there that they are not alone and the only ones feeling like this. Representation can occur in various forms and can mean much more than you would think. If you think from a sports perspective, it is about breaking boundaries and stepping into a field that you never thought you could conquer; it is about getting a chance you would have probably never gotten before.  

Taking the example of the movie ‘Shabaash Mithu’ [directed by Srijit Mukherji; starring Taapsee Pannu], the alleged biopic of the trailblazing Mithali Raj, I consider the movie a rather stimulating fictional story about how the Indian women’s cricket team finally left an indelible mark in the hearts of a good chunk of the Indian population, giving them at least a quarter of the fame and love that is showered daily on the men’s cricket team and games. The movie does a decent job in portraying the struggles of those women: on both a personal and sports level – in a perfect Bollywood sense. However, the movie feels very superficial and partly rushed (especially the last segment of the movie). Despite the movie’s version of Mithali Raj ending up becoming this singular torchbearer for women’s cricket; at its essence, it has accomplished the goal of stirring something in the hearts of the population and sparking at least some amount of interest in this segment of the sport. Through the well flourished childhood sequence of the movie and the adorable Mithu-Noorie friendship, they created an emotional bond with the characters and the sport, giving us a comparatively different narrative through the woman’s lens: the dream of a girl in a boy’s world. And today, they have made such a mark in the sport that the men wish for what the women have accomplished (RCB winning the IPL trophy). 

Meanwhile, if we take a film like ‘The Swimmers’ [directed by Sally El Hosaini; starring real-life sisters Nathalie and Manal Issa] one notices an entirely different perspective on the importance of representation. The film revolves around the real-life sisters Yusra and Sara Mardini. The film’s first half narrates their tumultuous journey to Greece as they escaped the Syrian Civil War, including their daunting swim across the Aegean Sea while the next half talks about Yusra’s journey, determination, and grit to swim for the Olympics. As (unfortunately) rushed as this movie is (it should have been a two-part film giving both segments equal weightage and the right to flourish), the film does a great job in explaining the importance of a refugee to fight and represent, acting as a beacon of hope to save, protect, and give a voice to those who can’t speak up themselves. The moving speech of Sara Mardini to her sister, Yusra when the latter doubts her right to be at the Olympics as a part of the Refugee Olympic Team perfectly captures this emotion: ‘Swim for those who couldn’t.’ Through the movie, the importance of that representation in a sport – whether it is for those who have a country or those who unfortunately no longer do, is beautifully woven into the hearts and minds of every viewer. 

Without representation, stories cannot be told or related. Without finding someone like you out there, who looks like you, who understands you, who is proof that you can also do it, what are the chances of you stepping away from the fear of failure that pins you down and giving it all a shot?