Anaya Bangar, former Indian cricketer and coach Sanjay Bangar’s child, last year shared a journey of transformation post a hormonal replacement therapy and gender reaffirming surgery. Anaya, who was formerly namely named Aryan, is an athlete and played age-group cricket following Sanjay Bangar’s footsteps. But Anaya revealed that there were significant hurdles in pursuing cricket career after the gender reaffirming surgery. Anaya lives in the United Kingdom currently. 

Anaya’s journey has not been easy at all from the very beginning. In a recent interview, Anaya revealed the ‘toxic masculinity’ in cricket world. 

In the interview, given to Lallantop, Anaya was asked: “When do you get to realise that ‘I am in the wrong chosen gender?'” 

“For me it was when I was eight or nine years old, I used to pick clothes from my mom’s cupboard and wear them. Then, I used to look into the mirror and say, ‘I am a girl. I want to be a girl’,” Anaya said. 

“I played with some well known cricketers now like Musheer Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Yashasvi Jaiswal. I had to maintain secrecy about myself because dad is a well known figure. Cricket world is filled with insecurity and toxic masculinity.” 

Anaya was then asked about the reaction of fellow cricketers after she underwent gender reaffirmation surgery. “There has been support and there have been some harassment as well,” Anaya said. 

“What kind of harassment?” the anchor asked. 

“There have been a few cricketers who randomly sent me nude pictures of them,” Anaya replied.

Anaya then went on to speak about a person, who used to indulge in verbal abuse. “The person used to give gaalis in front of everybody. The same person then used to come and sit beside me and ask for my photos. There was another instance, when I was in India, I told a puraane (veteran) cricketer about my situation. He told me let’s go in the car, I want to sleep with you.”

Just like Bangar, Anaya is also a cricketer who has represented Islam Gymkhana in local club cricket. Apart from this, the left-handed batter has also played for the Hinckley Cricket Club in Leicestershire. 

However, in November 2023, the International Cricket Council (ICC) stated transgender athletes will not be allowed to participate in women’s cricket. 

“Inclusivity is incredibly important to us as a sport, but our priority was to protect the integrity of the international women’s game and the safety of players,” stated then ICC CEO Geoff Allardice.

Taking to Instagram, Anaya also shared a lengthy post to express disappointment over ICC’s new rule. 

Anaya (previously Aryan) is currently living in Manchester and is very active on Instagram and always keeps the followers updated.