In 2003, Mayanti Langer had flaming red hair. It turned heads and raised eyebrows once she joined Delhi’s Hindu College for a degree in English Honours. In particular, the kings of the campus, the college cricket team — who count Ajay Jadeja, Gautam Gambhir and Saba Karim as alumni — weren’t impressed.
Customary ragging ensued, lasting almost half a term. Langer had come into the college on the back of her first real failure, when she had received no admits from the design schools she applied to, despite coming from a family of artists and with strong art scores in her 12th standard exams. All considered, it’s not surprising that she developed a significant distaste for cricket. “I hated cricket,” were, in fact, her exact words.
The idea for this interview was conceived in a studio back in May this year, but I didn’t recognise it at the time. I was sitting in the expert’s chair, about to preview a women’s T20 match, flanked by former Australian cricketer Dean Jones on one side and Mayanti Langer (now Langer-Binny) on the other. Before the show began, as we were chatting, Jones turned to me but pointed to Langer-Binny and said, “best in the business”. I didn’t pay it much heed, putting it down to Aussie banter. But once the show began, the banter in the studio went down, and the voices in my head went up.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2019 - January 2020-Ausgabe von Verve.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2019 - January 2020-Ausgabe von Verve.
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