Avadhpuri Colony in Shahganj is about nine kilometers from Agra’s most recognisable landmark, the Taj Mahal. As the navigator takes you close to Deepti Sharma’s location, another landmark is unmissable. The entrance to the group of houses is grand: “Arjuna Awardee Cricketer Deepti Sharma Marg: Sarvajan Vikas Samiti Avadhpuri aapka hardik swagat karti hai.” It is where India’s all-weather all-rounder grew up, running after her brother Sumit Sharma to watch him practise cricket, often sneaking out of the house without her mother’s knowledge.
“This is where we all grew up. But after Deepti won the Arjuna Award, CM Yogi Adityanath had said we need to improve the roads around the house, it wasn’t that great before,” Sumit tells The Indian Express. “It became Deepti Sharma Marg. Then the colony decided that it is a matter of great respect for us, so we will keep the name of this colony in Deepti’s name. This is a matter of pride for us now. People around here now use it as a landmark. ‘Where do you live? We live in Avadhpuri. Where Deepti lives? Oh, our house is the fourth from hers, etc.’ This is a proper landmark for everyone.”
At the World Cup, Deepti is India’s leading wicket-taker with 15 in the league stage. With the bat, she has rescued India from a precarious position in the opener against Sri Lanka in Guwahati. And against England in Indore, when Deepti and Smriti Mandhana were batting together, India seemed destined for a big win, before they eventually collapsed. On the field, she has been firing in bullet throws as she likes to… as she created a dismissal out of nowhere against Pakistan.
Incidentally, Deepti’s cricketing journey began with one such throw. The story goes that when watching her brother train from the sidelines one day, as the ball trickled towards her, she picked it up and nailed a long throw back into the field. And it immediately caught the eye of former India batter Hemlata Kala, who was also training at the Eklavya sports complex.
Deepti’s brother Sumit Sharma. (Express Photo By Vinayakk Mohanarangan)
“Deepti isko dekh dekh ke cricket kheli, Sumit has played cricket at age group level in Uttar Pradesh. Deepti was around 8 years old at that time, when she started going to the stadium with him,” father Bhagwan Sharma, retired Indian Railways employee, says. “Our neighbours and our relatives around here used to say, ‘Where do you send a girl out like this? She has to become a doctor or engineer, she has to study, this is not a woman’s sport, it’s for men.’ We completely avoided such talk. Today they ask ‘When is Deepti coming? We have to take photos with her!’
Sumit adds, “I was the first one to play cricket at our home. We don’t have any cricket family background. My father was in a government job. My mother was a school principal, brothers studied and became engineers. Whenever I used to go to play cricket in the colony, even after my mother’s resistance or even when she locked the doors, Deepti somehow found a way to get out and watch my matches. When I used to return in the evening, Deepti used to know all the details of my match. She’d say you could have won it had that catch not been dropped and things like that. She confessed that she sat by the side and watched me.”
The drive to be a cricketer made Deepti insist to her father that Sumit should take her to training with him. “At the age of 8, Deepti started going to the stadium with a cricket kit bag with me. And when she was 17, in November 2014, she made her India debut. Between that time, she has won multiple trophies in domestic cricket, first with UP and then with Bengal,” Sumit adds, pointing to all the trophies that have been displayed in the waiting room at the entrance to the house.
Story continues below this ad
Deepti Sharma’s “unforgettable memories” in photo frame. (Express Photo By Vinayakk Mohanarangan)
While fielding came naturally to Deepti, Sumit recognised early that becoming all-rounder was the best path to the Indian team. “Because you can play one match three times,” he puts it. “Even from the boundary, she nails those powerful throws,” Bhagwan chimes in. Deepti started off as a medium pacer when she played for UP for the first time in a U19 event. Sumit then took the call to make her a spinner as he wanted her to bat in the top order and didn’t want to risk injuries that might compromise one of the three disciplines.
The Eklavya sports stadium, where Sumit used to train, was quite far. “It used to take 4 hours just travelling. We used to have a moped and you know, how fast it can go. It can’t go beyond 40kph,” Sumit recalls.
A critical juncture in Deepti’s journey actually required Sumit to make a big career call. Professionally, he felt that there was no future for him in cricket, so he left to pursue his MBA, safe in the knowledge that at least Deepti would play for India one day. He got a job through campus placement and when he came home sometimes for a break, he could see that Deepti was gaining some weight and wasn’t able to practice regularly as they used to.
Sumit Sharma, Bhagwan Sharma, Sushila Sharma – Deepti’s family. (Express Photo By Vinayakk Mohanarangan)
“This was around 2012-2013,” Sumit says. “I realised that she had to put in all her efforts into training if she had to cross that final barrier from UP to India. I told our father, ‘dekhiye papa, I already had a plan to quit, and now I feel that Deepti is not able to play. So it has made me doubly sure that I have to leave my job.’ Relatives, neighbors already were saying, ‘Ladki hai, mat khilao Sharma ji.” My father never listened to them. Then when I told him my decision too, he backed us. This was his support. I told my father, I want us to practice day and night. If we go in the morning, we won’t come back. And I warned my father. People will ask you now why your son did an expensive course and is now sitting at home. Be ready. He never questioned me. Our elder brothers agreed too.”
Story continues below this ad
Sumit told his parents and brothers that he needed two years, working day and night. “Eshwar se humne maanga, do saal de do. Kuch hua nahi toh, hum apne raaste chale jaayenge. If we achieved our dream by then, God willing, great. Otherwise I will go back to my job. Deepti can continue playing at whatever level she reaches.”
And they did, trained harder than before at a rented place nearer to the house, where the 35-year-old Sumit now coaches at his own academy. As the fourth son in the family, Sumit got the backing he wanted. And he delivered on his promise to make Deepti play for India as an allrounder that the team can depend on across formats. “When Deepti plays today, I play for India with her,” Sumit says.
