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.
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Esta historia es de la edición December 2019 - January 2020 de Verve.
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