CHENNAI: As the Madras Gymkhana Club continues to wear a festive look during the 54th Madras Gymkhana Club Annual Open Bridge Tournament on Saturday, one player cannot be missed. More so because of her incredible journey where she switched sports -- cricket to bridge. Former India women all-rounder Sumathi Iyer, who went on to become the first international woman umpire from India, can be seen focused on the game.
Sumathi went on to win second place in the women's pairs event in the ongoing competition, which is also a South Zone Category B Ranking tournament. She is very popular among the bridge fraternity in the city and has donned multiple hats in both the sports. She has been part of the various committees of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, the main one being a member of the Cricket Advisory Committee.
Sumathi has been involved with bridge for the past 15 years, and explained her love for it. "Cricket was my first love and I played with distinction and still follow the game. But today I like to play bridge. You see after some age when you can't go on to the field and play cricket. You need to play and take up some sport and I took bridge," she said.
She explained her tryst with bridge: "I started the game just a more that a decade ago and I learned it with my husband. I started playing with him as a partner, as a teammate. But I found that there are a lot of friends. I've learned so much from the game. And the best part is the people who are playing this game are from 25 years to 80 years and even 90 years old. I'm delighted to see and interact where many of our bridge players and this game has no retirement," recalled Sumathi. She felt that the sport has helped her sharpen her thinking capacity. "I mean, (it is a) card game, it gets sidelined. But this particular game of bridge, it sharpens your thinking capacity. You also have the team and partnership. It helps you to bond with people. I regret not having played in my earlier days," she said.
She credited the Gymkhana Club where she learnt how to play bridge and was happy to travel and play the game in various categories (ladies pair, mixed pair and so on).
"I am a member here and we learnt the game here. I slowly started developing interest in bridge. I also qualified myself as a bridge director," she said. Sumathi insists that bridge has helped her to make friends world over and wants all women cricketers who have retired and also younger ones to play bridge. "Even if you fail, it's okay, you can bounce back. So I advocate lot of women cricketers to play bridge online," she signed off.
Results: EA Bridge Final IMP Pairs: Champions: Gopinath Manna & Debabrata Majumder 69.72; Runner-up: V Mohan Rao & D Sudhanand 59.01; Third: Pranab Roy & Joyrup Mullick 57.72.
