XYZ Athletic Meet

I have been associated with sports all my life, being it playing them or watching them from the sidelines or on television. The Parsi community has produced brilliant sportsmen and women in various disciplines and even today we have excellent athletes, shooters, and football and cricket players who make us proud.

It was only in December that I received an email from a dear friend Capt. Cusrow Minocherhomji about a lady named Shireen Kiash. For me, this was the penultimate sports personality of our community and I would hope that every individual would know about her and the achievements.

Ever since then, we decided to organised the XYZ Athletic Meet, where we will remember Shireen Kiash and as a build up, we are grateful to Parsi Times for carrying information and pictures of this great individual.

I personally hope that we have more like Shireen Kiash in our fold very soon as her story is inspiring and our Xtremely Young Zoroastrians are glad to have her as our motivation to excel in Sports.

– Hoshaang Gotla, Founder – XYZ

India’s Triple International Shireen Kiash

The only Indian and Parsi woman to have achieved such a feat of representing her nation in three sporting disciplines

SHIREEN KHUSHROO KIASH
India’s Most Versatile Sportsperson

The pride and joy of Bengal and India, an outstanding sport celebrity, India’s only ‘Triple’ International, Shireen Khushroo Kiash, a sportsperson par excellence, believed in never conceding defeat.

Daughter of Nergish and late Pallon D. contractor, Bombay born Shireen (1-11-1949) shifted her base to Calcutta at the very young age of seven years. Passing her Cambridge examination and graduating from Loreto college, Shireen’s sporting graph had a continuous upward trend.

Full of determination, utmost dedication and by dint of sheer hard work, as well as long hours of practice, Shireen was able to gain confidence of the Selectors both at State and National levels. No wonder, she represented India in Basketball, Hockey and Cricket, a unique feat rarely achieved by any Indian man or woman.

Apart from making her name in the above three disciplines, she represented Loreto College in the Inter Varsity Athletic Meet. As a Table tennis player she represented West Bengal Schools and Calcutta University.

Hockey
She was a member of the West Bengal Women’s Hockey Team which participated in the National Championships and at Trivandrum Nationals, on being chosen as the ‘Player of the Week,’ Shireen made her International Hockey debut in the 3rd Asian Women’s Championship held in New Delhi in 1968, where India finishing third, won the Bronze Medal.

Shireen was also a member of the Indian Hockey team which participated in the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Japan Women’s Hockey Association at Osaka in 1970 and on the way back, was part of the team that played against Hong Kong.

Basketball
Shireen was Captain of the Calcutta University team which participated in the All India Varsity Tournament. She represented West Bengal in the Nationals and was a member of the winning team which played in Colombo. She made her International debut as a member of the Indian team in the 3rd Asian Women’s Basketball Championship in Kuala Lumpur in 1970. She was chosen ‘Player of the Week’ several times in State level tournaments. Talented Shireen was employed by Eastern Railway in 1982 and played for her employer for several years.

Cricket
Representing West Bengal in the Women’s Cricket National Championship at Calcutta in 1975, Shireen as a member of the winning team also had the honour of being adjudged the ‘Best Batswoman’ of the tournament. No wonder she was selected to represent India against Australia in a 3 Test series in 1975. West Bengal had the distinction of beating the mighty Australian team at Durgapur, the only Indian State eleven to perform that feat. It was Shireen who hit the winning run, triggering wild celebrations amongst her team mates and spectators.

The Limca Book of records states that “Shireen is the “Most versatile Indian Player” which has also been mentioned by S. B. Bhattacherje in his book Encyclopaedia of Indian Events and Dates.