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Mother’s Day Special: The moms of these sporting stars play every match too, with match-day rituals, prayers and more
From giving up on their favourite fruit and match-day rituals to prayers and intuitions, moms of these sporting stars are quietly supporting their child through every big game.
As some of India’s brightest athletes take to the playing field, it’s not just training, practice, and preparation that guide them alone, but also the quiet rituals followed by their moms back home. From giving up their favourite fruit to uninterrupted prayers and match-day habits, here’s how moms of these sporting stars rally behind their kids on match days.
A mom’s ‘Cheeku’ sacrifice
Long before Vidit Gujrathi became one of India’s biggest chess stars, he had narrowly missed achieving his GM norm 13 times as a teenager. It was then, that his mother Dr. Nikita Gujrathi quietly made a promise to herself. “I love the fruit cheeku. I decided I won’t eat a cheeku till he becomes a GM. For two years I did not eat one,” she says. Then came the breakthrough moment. “The day my son became a Grandmaster, he hugged me and had me eat a cheeku from his hands. It never had tasted so sweet before.” Now a two-time Chess Olympiad gold medallist, Vidit shares he religiously receives a call from his mum, moments before he sits down for his match anywhere in the world, “In a way, the phone call with my mom has become part of my match preparation. She will not talk chess, but will ask how did you sleep, did you eat well. It’s just what I need to unwind before the pressure of a big game,” he says
I am not going to watch your match live
Nupur Sheoran is a five-time National Boxing Champion and double gold medallist at the World Boxing Cup, but her mother Mukesh Rani has never watched her daughter compete live. “No matter how big a match it is, mom will never watch it live neither at the arena nor on TV. She will sit in the other room and then take updates from dad who is watching. Once the match is over, within minutes she will watch the re run. I have tried to get her to watch live but failed,” says Nupur with a grin. Mukesh, a former basketball player and an Asian medalist adds, “Once, she was competing in an age-group match, which I watched live and she lost. So, now I will not. But yes, once she wins an Olympic medal, I might change my mind but I can’t promise,” she says.
Praying till the final whistle blows
Navneet Kaur, who recently captained the Indian women’s hockey team and was the 2025 Player of the Year, says her mother Balwinder Kaur’s rituals begin the moment she steps onto the field. “From the moment my match starts, my mom will go sit in the mandir at home and pray non-stop without breaking a breath. She will pray non stop, with her eyes closed and will only move from there when the final whistle blows,” she shares. Her mother adds, “For me my daughter is the best player in the world so I don’t need to worry about watching her perform. I am a mom and while she plays, I want to send blessings and prayers her way. That is my way of being with her and in a way be a part of her battles and challenges on the ground. So, that is what I do,” she says.
A ritual born out of mom’s intuition
Olympian shooter Arjun Babuta says his mother Deepti Babuta often knows his match-day mind set even before he says a word. “Mumma has a very strong intuition when it comes to me on my match days. She sometimes can tell I will be doing well or may sometimes will have an off day. But, she never tells me so that I do not get distracted. But sometimes on match days she will tell me today pray to Surya dev or remember your grandfather in your thoughts.”
Deepti, an award-winning Punjabi writer, adds that her connection with him goes beyond intuition. “I can just read his body language on the morning of a match and tell what he is feeling like. And then I can tell what energy he is carrying to the arena. Based on that I try to pass on some positivity to him. I just want him to feel calm, feel protected, like I am right there with him even if I am not,” she says.
