Indian women's cricket team captain Mithali Raj and coach Tushar Arothe at the MCA, BKC. File pic

"Ma'am, that's the way to the spectator stands," a staffer at the Bombay Hockey Association (BHA) yelled out when he spotted me enter the Churchgate venue. This was before a match between two women's railway teams at a junior level tournament. These were the early days of my time as a sports journalist; and my first hockey assignment. The staffer had assumed that being a woman I had come to cheer my team. How could I possibly be a member of the press? After correcting him, he half-believingly directed me to the enclosure, where I joined the rest of my ilk - an all-male bastion. I had just experienced a regular episode in as a woman sports journalist.