Bandhan Ram Vastrakar was not blissful when his youngest daughter Pooja Vastrakar purchased a automobile value Rs 15 lakh for him earlier than leaving for the T20 World Cup. He referred to as it a “waste of money”. On Monday, when his 23-year-old daughter was purchased by Mumbai Indians for a staggering Rs 1.9 crore within the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) public sale, the 72-year-old stated he needed his daughter to gather all of the public sale cash. Instead of spending, put in “Fixed Deposit”.
“Bahut paise waste karti hai. Mai chahta hun ki ye saare paise ka FD kar le (She wastes a lot of money. I want her to open a fixed deposit account with all the money),” Bandhan Ram instructed The Indian Express from Shahdol.
Bandhan Ram, a retired BSNL worker, by no means imagined that his daughter would play for India sometime, and that her ardour for cricket would fetch her a lot cash.
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“Since the age of four, he has been into cricket. I never thought that she would play for India one day. But she always knew this,” recalled Bandhan Ram.
Pooja is the youngest of seven siblings (5 daughters and two sons) and has all the time been her father’s darling.
“Whenever she requested for cash for cricket, I used to tease her saying why she was losing her time in cricket. She used to say, ‘Aap dekhna, India khelungi (One day, I’ll play for India)’.
Bandhan Ram’s want is to see his daughter with the Women’s World Cup title. “I hope she helps India elevate the World Cup in South Africa. She is making a comeback after harm and is predicted to be match.
Pooja was launched to the game by her elder sister Usha, who was into athletics and defined her sister’s tryst with cricket.
“Till eight or nine, she used to play cricket in the street with the boys. Then Ashutosh sir (Srivastava) saw him playing on the field, came to our house and asked my father to let him join his academy. A year later, when my mother passed away, he stopped going to the academy. I came to know about it and I literally took him to the academy. Since then he has not missed a single practice session. I am glad she is pursuing her passion. We are very proud of their achievements,” stated Usha.
Pooja’s coach Ashutosh Srivastava, who lives in Shahdol, a small city in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district, recalled how she mistook him for a boy after hitting bowlers twice his dimension for sixes.
“I noticed him enjoying on the Municipal Corporation floor in Shahdol. I noticed a boy hitting sixes in tennis ball cricket. I requested one of many youngsters, who is that this boy, the reply was, ‘Sir, this can be a lady.’ Ashutosh stated, “I was amazed by his power-hitting.”
After bringing her into his academy, Srivastava by no means allowed her to coach with the ladies and allowed Pooja to play with the boys.
“She was very good for girls her age. I put her in the boys’ under-14 team and within a few weeks, she became the best among boys in her age group as well,” he stated.
Pooja’s household credit her success to Srivastava, who took care of all her bills.
“I hardly did anything for him. Initially, it was Ashutosh sir who helped her. Then when she was selected for the Madhya Pradesh U-19 team, she started earning money and never asked me for anything. He had also helped financially during his sister’s marriage,” stated Pooja’s father.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
