Men have predominantly dominated coaching structures in India. But the advent of the Women's Premier League (WPL) has slowly brought about a breeze of change. VR Vanitha, the former India batter, is one of the changemakers. For the past two seasons, Vanitha has been in charge of the men's set-up at Shivamogga Lions in the Maharaja Trophy T20, the league run by the Karnataka State Cricket Association.
Before her involvement with the Lions, she was also part of Royal Challengers Bengaluru as a scout of the men's team. That association extended to the women's setup too when the WPL began, as she became their scout and fielding coach.
At a time when recently retired internationals have gone down the media route, especially with avenues opening up due to the demand for commentary in regional Indian languages, apart from Hindi and English, Vanitha's post-retirement route stands out.
"My very first thought upon taking up this assignment was if people will accept me," Vanitha tells ESPNcricinfo. "But I always knew, my experiences will help me in this journey. My goal in the coaching journey is to complete what I couldn't as a player."
Vanitha retired relatively young, at 32, after a spate of injuries kept pushing her lower and lower in the pecking order. She finished her career with an underwhelming six ODIs and 16 T20Is. There was a highlight, though: being part of an Indian team that recorded their first-ever series win in Australia in January 2016.
Vanitha admits to being challenged by stereotypes early on. "If anything went wrong, by muscle memory, whether people meant it or not, the first reaction would be, 'oh, why have you got a female coach? That's why. Maybe it's time to look elsewhere,'" she said. "The process of change [in perception] has been gradual."
Vanitha realised early that the only way to fight the perception battle was to be confident of her craft. International players are exempt from taking the Level-1 course at the BCCI's National Cricket Academy. While former players see this as a head start, Vanitha didn't.
"In a way, retiring early was my biggest advantage, but coaching is not a right," Vanitha says, "Physically, I could bring in a lot of freshness and energy. Previously, what our coaches were lacking is the knowledge of being part of T20 setups.
"Having played the format and having understood what was lacking gave me perspective on what I needed to work on. Being a former international can only take you so far, you still have to work for it."
In addition to her Level-1 and Level-2, Vanitha has pursued an international coaching certification from Cricket Victoria in Melbourne.
"Doing Level-1 gave me the base," Vanitha explains. "Like the basics of batting, the grip-stance-back lift and the downswing. If I understand these concepts, it becomes a lot easier. You understand why batters get out to a certain mode of dismissals more than others. You understand the biomechanics element. You get a clear picture that with a certain back-lift with a certain setup, what the pros and cons are [for that player]. That is when I realised it is so important for coaches to do Level-1 because you start seeing these aspects.
"When you're playing, you understand only your point of view. You understand only what worked for you and what didn't. But going through the rigours of a coaching course helps you understand systems, structures, the fundamentals we can so easily brush aside, sometimes because as internationals your ego takes over and you think 'oh but I know this, why do I need a coaching session or someone else to tell me?'"
"Truth be said, not many accept this for the fact that women are doing a lot of things, a lot of multiple things like scouting," she says. "But over time, I've realised if you put in the hard work and build a bank of practical knowledge, people won't have a choice but to accept you eventually.
"But I've never looked for validation from anybody. I felt that if I continue to do my job in the sense of putting out my knowledge and understanding of the game, I don't think people should have any problem in terms of accepting. But again, it's a battle. I won't deny that."
She also credits other coaches for her reading of the game today. "Growing up, Irfan Sait was a massive influence," she says. "As I got into cricket, I learnt from T Dilip [India fielding coach] at the NCA. His technical knowledge was impeccable. The number of questions I would ask him back and forth…I later realised that while asking questions, I learnt a lot of techniques and tactics.
"RX Murali in Bengaluru was extremely good. I learned a lot about the power grain and T20-specific training. And with strength and conditioning, there was Varun Shetty. I picked up a lot about movement patterns, body alignment, and biomechanics. These four people have made a huge impact. Interactions with them while I was playing was like my under-graduation and then the last two years have been like getting a PG degree."
"My dream is obviously to work for the Indian team" VR Vanitha
Now after seeing the bird's eye view of coaching and player management over the past two years, she feels there are some aspects where women's cricket in India can be better.
"At the age-group level at least, we don't believe in quantity, but they believe in quantity," Vanitha says of how Australia differs from India. "A majority of work goes in during the pre-season there. Here, we tend to only work season-to-season. We don't tend to monitor players as much as they do there.
"Partly that is because players aren't contracted here, so they're by themselves during the off-season. So there is no continuity. You want a system where once the season ends, you want to see players you work with be accountable towards their recovery, off-season drills, work on their skillsets so that when they're back for the next season, you're able to take off from where you left off, and not start from scratch."
Vanitha, now 34, is proud of the strides she has been able to take over the past two years. But she aims even higher.
"I want to give myself two more years of coaching, and then to Level-3," she says. "My dream is obviously to work for the Indian team. That has always been my desire. If there's a choice to make between a franchise and BCCI, I would just walk out of a franchise cricket because my desire and passion lie in representing the country. And I really want to get closer to that."