Pooja Vastrakar: From Shahdol’s ‘gully girl’ who turned a millionaire to propelling India to Asian Games closing

“Whenever she asked for money for cricket, I would tease her by asking why she was wasting her time in cricket. She used to say, ‘aap dekhna, India khelungi (One day, I will play for India),” Pooja Vastrakar’s father Bandhan Ram as soon as instructed The Indian Express.

On Sunday morning, in Hangzhou China, Pooja, who wasn’t even within the authentic squad for the Games, surprised Bangladesh with a double strike within the first over of the sport, enroute a four-fer, to propel India ladies into the ultimate of the Asian Games.

Bandhan Ram had lengthy stopped being stunned by something his youngest daughter did. Not her performances, not her unbinding love for the sport, and or for the matter, her bills.

He wasn’t too satisfied when Pooja purchased him a Rs 15 lakh automotive earlier than going for the final T20 World Cup. He referred to as it a “waste of money”. In February, after his 23-year-old daughter was picked by Mumbai Indians for a staggering price ticket of Rs 1.9 crore within the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) public sale, the 72-year-old stated he wished his daughter to place all of the public sale cash right into a “fixed deposit” reasonably than splurge it.’

“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 had instructed this newspaper.

A retired BSNL worker, Bandhan Ram by no means thought that his daughter will go on to play for India some day, and that her ardour for cricket would fetch her this sum of money.

“Since the age of four, she has been into cricket. I never thought that she would go on to play for India one day. But she always knew it,” recalled Bandhan Ram.

Pooja is the youngest amongst seven siblings (5 daughters and two sons), and has at all times been the favorite of her father.

Pooja was launched to sport by her elder sister Usha, who was into athletics and narrated her sister’s tryst with cricket.

“Till eight or nine, she used to play cricket in the gully with the boys. Then Ashutosh sir (Srivastava) watched her playing on a ground, came to our home and told my father to let her join his academy. A year later, when my mother passed away, she stopped going to the academy. I got to know about it and literally dragged her to the academy. From there onwards, she never missed a single practice session. I am happy that she is pursuing her passion. We are very proud of her achievements,” stated Usha.

Pooja’s coach Ashutosh Srivastava, who lives in Shahdol, a small city in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district, recalled how he mistook her for a boy after seeing her hitting sixes off bowlers double her measurement.

“I saw her playing at the municipal ground in Shahdol. I saw a kid smacking sixes in tennis ball cricket. I asked one of the kids, who is this boy, the reply was, ‘sir ye toh ladki hai.’ I was amazed by her power-hitting,” stated Ashutosh.

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After getting her into his academy, Srivastava by no means let her practice with the ladies and made Pooja play with the boys.

She was approach too good for the ladies of her age. I put her within the boy’s U-14 workforce and in a few weeks, she turned out the very best among the many boys of her age group as nicely,” he stated.

“I hardly did anything for her. Initially, it was Ashutosh sir, who helped her out. Then when she was picked for the Madhya Pradesh Under-19 team, she started earning money and never asked anything from me. She even helped with money during her sister’s marriage,” stated Pooja’s father. Now she helps India win a medal on the Asian Games.