&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "'Mumbai Kerr': Why India feels like home to Amelia Kerr and how cricket helped find her way back")
When you start young, the game becomes familiar very quickly. But as Amelia Kerr puts it, “The game changes when you change. Not in how it looks from the outside, but in how it feels when you’re standing there.”
For Kerr, cricket was never just a sport. It was a language she learned early, a rhythm shaped by watching her older sister Jess, by observing quietly, absorbing everything around her. Once she picked up the bat herself, there was no turning back. Cricket became the hook for life. Her childhood memories are filled with sun-soaked January camps in Hastings, family, friends, and the joy of simply being outside. By the age of 10, that joy turned into ambition. There was hunger in her eyes, a desire to be better, to push herself further. A five-year plan was drawn up. She completed it in half the time.
Kerr’s rise with New Zealand felt natural, almost inevitable. Her debut was pure excitement, a moment she fully embraced. A year later came the double hundred, opening the batting, seizing the opportunity, turning a day into something unforgettable. For her, cricket never felt like a burden. It was hard, yes. Failure was part of it. But it was also her happy place. Her safe space. What few could see were the silent battles between training sessions and matches. The sadness she tried to hide. In 2020, Kerr was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. The weight became unbearable. She describes it as losing her soul, reaching the absolute lowest point of her life.
The turning point came when she was sent home from a New Zealand training camp for safety reasons. Seeing her parents, especially her father, break down shattered her. It forced a confrontation she could no longer avoid. Asking for help, she learned, was not weakness but courage. Recovery wasn’t instant. It took work, honesty, and a strong support system. Most importantly, it took a willingness to help herself. That decision, made at her lowest, remains one of the things she is most proud of.
Out of that darkness came purpose. Kerr launched Treating Water, partnering with I Am Hope to create space for conversations around mental health. Interviewing others who have struggled, she found healing not just for herself, but for countless people who saw their own stories reflected in hers. Through it all, cricket remained the constant. The place she wanted to return to. Fear existed, but she refused to let it stop her. Slowly, the bad days became fewer. The future began to feel exciting again.
That excitement has followed her to India, and to the Mumbai Indians, a place that feels less like a franchise and more like family. The roar of the crowd, the passion, the noise when she takes a wicket, it lifts her. Mumbai, she says, is probably the best place in the world to play cricket. Being called “Mumbai Kerr” feels like belonging. Today, Amelia Kerr understands something she once didn’t: loving cricket doesn’t mean losing yourself to it. It means growing alongside it. Let it challenge you. Letting your journey be imperfect, but meaningful. And always finding your way back to what feels true.
