As Indian pacer Renuka Singh Thakur obtained a profitable bid of Rs 1.5 crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore within the Ladies’s Premier League public sale on Monday afternoon, mom Sunita Thakur and brother Vinod Thakur at their village Parsa in Rohru district in Himachal Pradesh. With Renuka shedding her father Kehar Singh at a younger age, Sunita labored within the Himachal Irrigation division and public well being division as a fourth class worker and because the 27-year-old pacer obtained a profitable bid within the first ever WPL public sale, Sunita remembered the onerous days confronted by the household.
“No matter Renuka has achieved is because of her onerous work and keenness for the game. As a teen, she would all the time accompany her brother to the village floor close to the nullah and would play within the boys’ groups. After the dying of my husband, we struggled financially however I by no means let that are available between my daughter’s cricketing goals. She all the time watched IPL matches with curiosity and to see her play within the WPL for a group will likely be a dream come true for all of us,” stated Sunita Thakur whereas talking with The Indian Specific from Parsa village.
With the village having a small cricket floor close to Kundi Nullah, Renuka would follow with the village boys within the morning as effectively evenings between her faculty time. With the boys together with her brother Vinod enjoying matches in close by villages, a younger Renuka would additionally journey with them to play earlier than her uncle Bhupinder Singh Thakur suggested her to present trials for the HPCA Academy at Dharamshala. The following years noticed her practice on the academy and she or he emerged because the main wicket-taker within the BCCI Ladies’s one Day trophy in 2019 with 23 wickets.
The final three years have seen Renuka enjoying in seven ladies’s ODIs and 28 ladies’s T20Is together with the 2022 Commonwealth Video games in Birmingham the place she picked up a complete of 11 wickets together with two four-wicket hauls. “When she began enjoying cricket, she would all the time choose up no matter was accessible like wood sticks or plastic bats from residence or neighbourhood to play with the boys. Typically, she would return residence crying that she didn’t get her flip to bat or bowl. However as she carried out effectively within the village tournaments, groups got here to choose her up together with a brand new bat or ball and she or he would all the time return with a trophy. She nonetheless retains her trophies in a small almirah at our residence,” says Thakur
The 27-year-old pacer is presently in South Africa as a part of the Indian ladies’s group within the ICC Ladies’s T20 World Cup and the household watched India’s opening match towards Pakistan on Sunday at their village. Though Renuka failed to assert any wicket within the match, mom Sunita believes that she will likely be motivated by the WPL bid and can overlook the mediocre efficiency within the opening match for India within the T20 World Cup.
“When she returned residence with a silver medal from CWG, she made positive that the village women noticed the medal. Earlier than going to the World Cup in South Africa, she got here residence and in addition gave a few of her jerseys to the village women. Together with her signing within the Ladies Premier League, I’m positive increasingly more women will likely be motivated on seeing her play on TV and dream about enjoying for WPL groups aside from India,” stated Thakur.
Whereas Renuka has not gotten the Rs two crore introduced by the Himachal Authorities on successful the silver medal in 2022 CWG, Sunita had a chat together with her daughter on find out how to spend the public sale bid cash. “We simply had a chat with Renuka and she or he was excited to play for a franchise, which has former Indian captain Virat Kohli of their males’s group. She has not obtained the prize cash of Commonwealth Video games from HP authorities. She stated she is going to spend this public sale cash on constructing a brand new residence for the household, “ concluded Sunita.