India’s women’s Lawn Bowls team has at times funded their travel themselves, but the historic CWG medal should change that
Lovely Choubey was a promising long jumper from Jharkhand in her youth who represented the East Zone and dreamed of representing India. Born to a Class 4 employee at Central Mine Design Limited, Lovely had very little to help her ambitions and hoped sport would help her take off in life like in the sand pit. It also resulted in her coach putting her on an overly rigorous program and injuring her hips. Desperate, she spent a few months feeling miserable before Bihar’s then-cricket referee Madhukant Pathak invited her to try turf bowls. Lovely, who is now a police officer with Jharkhand Police, found the gentle, rolling pace and soothing rhythm of lawn bowls an oasis for her shattered confidence. Unaware but always bright, she began the nuanced angles of rolling the bowls around the jack, the game’s target ball.