Indian players celebrate after winning the Lawn Bowls Women's Fours final match against South Africa, at the Commonwealth Games 2022. (Photo: PTI)
Victoria Park in Royal Lemmington Spa is prone to great gusts of wind that makes trees in the massive compound shudder. On Tuesday, winds of change blew through the sprawling complex and the sport of lawn bowls, as the Indian women's fours team won an unprecedented gold medal by defeating South Africa 17-10 in the final. When the final confirmation of gold came, the quartet of history makers — Lovely Choubey, Pinki, Nayanmoni Saikia and Rupa Rani Tirkey — fell to their knees and huddled together before they went on a lap of the rink on the greens with Tricolours held aloft as the largely local crowd gave them a warm applause.
The medal was even more commendable considering India has just the one lawn bowls facility in the whole nation with natural grass. The women's team, just as the rest of the Indian lawn bowls squad, trains on artificial turf at Yamuna Sports Complex in the capital, while they had to compete on natural grass at Victoria Park. The difference is not insignificant.
"We repaired the turf at the Yamuna Complex some time back. Yes, there is a difference when you roll a ball down an artificial turf as compared to natural grass, but that doesn't matter now. The girls have won gold," said team manager Anju Luthra, who added that at the national camp, players were made to train roughly at the same times they would be competing in at Birmingham.
The team trained on artificial turf for the entire duration of four-five months. They had a training camp in India for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. After the team landed in London on July 20, BFI booked a private club's facilities in London so that the players could train on natural grass for five to six days to get a hang of playing on grass. In previous editions of the Commonwealth Games, surfaces for lawn bowls have varied.
"On the turf, speed matters. Then the weather and climate of India also has some effect on the speed with which the ball travels. Despite of all these odds, the team has done phenomenally," said BFI Secretary General Lokinder Singh.
The Indian squad is also without a coach since the last Commonwealth Games and got specific rolling balls only after landing in London because when the Bowling Federation of India (BFI) tried ordering them for the team, the shipping time and costs were significant. The Indian team had a foreign coach during the New Delhi CWG in 2010 and Indian coaches for Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018.
"In India we don't have a coach for lawn bowls. In 2018, our coach stepped down. We were supposed to hire an international coach but unfortunately, due to unavoidable circumstances, we haven't been able to do so. So, we have used the services of our international technical officials and selection committee members to help the players with technical inputs at the end of each day at the national camp," said Lokinder.
He added that since the Birmingham Commonwealth Games organisers had introduced new regulations for rolling balls, they had to try and import 20 sets of balls, one red and one blue for each of the 10 players of the side. Each player prefers to use a ball with a specific weight and a specific circumference depending on their palm size and what they're comfortable rolling.
If the Australians are known around the greens for their devil-may-care, topless celebrations, the South Africans, Scots, and the New Zealanders have a pretty stellar record in lawn bowls. The Indians, on the other hand, had a reputation for always being so close yet so far, losing by one point with medals in sight. The Indian contingent has had to endure heartbreaking defeats by one point at multiple Commonwealth Games, including at Delhi 2010. But over the course of their run to the gold at Birmingham, they upset New Zealand and South Africa in crunch games.
"We've had instances where we've lost international competitions by one point. But we were determined this time around, at these Games, that we would not lose by one point," said Lovely.
Maybe that's why the players, despite knowing that they were assured of a medal, had trouble sleeping on Monday night. On Tuesday, too, the jitters showed, albeit briefly. The Indians took an 8-2 lead by the seventh end in the final, before allowing the South Africans back into the game. By the 11th end, the South Africans were ahead 10-8, with the Indians starting to appear worried for the first time in a few days. But then they regrouped and rallied to victory by the 15th end.
"I didn't get adequate sleep last night because I was nervous whether we would win the gold or lose it. Thoughts like these keep floating through your head all night when you play a game of this magnitude. But when we woke up, we started to think that we have the opportunity to do something very special. We told ourselves in the morning that it is a new day, a new beginning," said Rupa.
It more ways than one, turned out to be a new beginning for the sport in India.
A dozen ministers will take oath at Tuesday’s ceremony, scheduled at Raj Bhavan at 12 pm, a close aide of Shinde said.
Follow all the live updates of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games
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