“Meri maa ko Dayan bulate the gaon waale,” U19 World Cup winner Archana Devi’s brother recalls villagers’ taunts for showing girl ‘wrong path’

Savitri Devi was heedless of the villagers' insults to fulfill her son Budhiman's last wish before dying, "Archana ko cricket khilao".

“Meri maa ko Dayan bulate the gaon waale,” U19 World Cup winner Archana Devi’s brother recalls villagers’ taunts for showing girl ‘wrong path’

U19 World Cup winner Archana Devi's brother recalls villagers' taunts for sending girl on wrong path

Archana Devi‘s father Shivram died due to cancer in 2008, leaving the responsibility of three children under Savitri Devi’s shoulders. Then in 2017, a cobra bit her younger son Budhiman.

Archana’s other brother Rohit, 21, also lost his job during the Covid-19 pandemic on March 22, and again everything fell upon his mother’s head. The family suffered from floods every year, and their farm was also flooded with waters from the Ganga river most of the time. They depended on the milk of their cow and buffalo.

But all the things villagers had to say was to call Savitri Devi’s home a witches’ home because she lost her husband, her son, and then sent her daughter on a “wrong path“. She faced these insults for her stubbornness; but was heedless of villagers’ taunting to fulfill her son Budhiman’s last wish before dying, “Archana ko cricket khilao (Let Archana play cricket.)”

Savitri Devi sent her daughter to Kasturba Gandhi Awasiya Balika Vidhayala, an all-girls boarding school in Ganj Moradabad. It is 15-16 km away from their village. “I have sold my daughter, I have put her in the wrong line. People used to tell me these things to my face,” Savitri Devi told the Indian Express.

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Archana Devi scalped two crucial wickets and grabbed a stunner

Archana Devi
Archana Devi

Punam Gupta was a coach at Archana’s school. She saw her game and then went to her home in Kanpur during the summer vacation, where she showed Archana’s videos to India spinner Kuldeep Yadav‘s coach Kapil Pandey. Pandya would then look after Archana’s cricket.

Archana gave India their second and third breakthroughs by sending Niamh Holland and then skipper Grace Scrivens to the dugout on the third and sixth ball of the fourth over. In her three overs, she conceded 17 runs at an economy of 5.67. She even grabbed a stunning one-handed catch to dismiss Ryana MacDonald-Gay to send England reeling at 43/6. Later, the women, for the first time at any ICC event, crowned world champions by thrashing England by seven wickets.

On the day of the final against England, her home in village Ratai Purwa, Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, was packed with guests, and Savitri Devi didn’t have enough blankets for them. “The neighbors, who never drank a glass of water from my house, are now helping me,” Savitri Devi said. “Tum logo ki toh ab kismat badal gayi (The fortune of your family is going to change now),” the villagers told Savitri Devi later.

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