India Women’s spinner Poonam Yadav is nominated for the prestigious sports award – Arjuna Award and the 27-year-old feels that her hard work has finally paid off. “It’s been a tough ride, but with god’s grace I could battle all the odds,” she said.
Showering gratitude towards all of her coaches, she said, “I am grateful to all the coaches who have helped me come so far.”
Talking about her journey, she told, “It’s been a tough journey. I remember in the 2009-2010 season, when I was playing for Uttar Pradesh, I could perform well neither with the ball nor with the bat. I was shattered. Things went so bad that I had decided that I will call it a day. I would have given up if my father had not advised me to give it some time.” She terms moving to the Railways in 2011 as her life-changing experience.
The fight with the societal mindset had always been there for ‘the magician’ (as her team-mates call her). “People around would pass comments on how can a girl play cricket or how can a girl come home late,” she said.
The things changed after the Women’s World Cup 2017 as they got their long due acceptance and recognition. Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Jhulan Goswami are her go-to persons in the team.
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