MANGALURU: Call it India’s share in Aussies’ success. India, and especially Mangaluru, has at least something to cheer about the outcome of the 2023 Cricket World Cup, thanks to Urmila Rosario, the team manager of the Australian cricket team, who shares close links with the coastal city.
Urmila, 34, is the daughter of Ivy and Valentine Rosario, who hail from Kinnigoli near Mangaluru. She was born in Doha, Qatar, when her parents were working there. Her parents returned to India seven years ago and settled down at Sakaleshpur, where they bought a coffee estate. In the meantime, Urmila, a BBA graduate from Carnegie Mellon University, moved to Australia.
By then, a sportsperson from her childhood, Urmila had worked with the Qatar Tennis Federation for three years. In Australia, she first worked with the Adelaide cricket team for about three years. Later, she was moved to the Australian women’s cricket team as team manager. During the last Football World Cup, she took leave from cricket and managed a football stadium in Qatar for four months.On her return to Australia from Qatar in September this year, she was asked to take care of the Australian men’s cricket team for the World Cup.
Urmila successfully managed women’s team & will return to them
Valentine, her father, said she accompanied the men’s team just for the World Cup assignment and she will rejoin the women’s cricket team soon and will accompany them when they tour India in December. Urmila’s journey into the sports world is quite interesting. As a student, she focused on basketball, tennis, rowing and bungee jumping, but never imagined that she will be so closely associated with cricket, says Valentine laughing.
On the nature of Urmila’s job, Ivy said she manages everything, including transport and accommodation. There are a lot of people under her and she is responsible for everything, she adds.
Valentine feels that it’s very strange that Cricket Australia took her to the national women’s cricket team about four years ago, despite her being a non-Australian and having an Indian passport at that time.
On her World Cup assignment, Valentine says she might have been picked as she successfully managed the women’s team and because of her knowledge of India and its languages. She can speak Hindi, Kannada and Konkani.
Her parents watched Australia matches in Bengaluru and Pune against Pakistan and Bangladesh, respectively. “We wanted to watch the finals, but unfortunately we could not leave the estate,” said Ivy. Urmila visited her parents in March this year and worked with her dad at the estate.