Fighting grinding poverty and overcoming immense hardship during the Covid period, two students studying in classes eight and nine in Chanchal in Malda, Rasmani Das and Preyasree Pandey, have been picked by the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) in their Under-19 and Under-15 cricket teams, respectively. The two players will now participate in a national tournament being organised by the BCCI in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, from 7 December, and in Bangalore, Karnataka, from the 12th. The news was received with jubilation by the families of the two girls and sports lovers across the district. According to sources, Rasmani, the daughter of Rabindranath Das, a lottery ticket vendor, and Sampa Das, grew up in a financially weak family, but she had great interest in sports. On the other hand, Preyasree, the daughter of Mihir and Paromita Pandey, both casual staff in a school and panchayat office, respectively, too was equally interested in the game of cricket. “Both the girls were noticed by their coach, Rajesh Das, the head coach of the Chanchal Cricket Academy, who started grooming Rasmani as a pace bowler and Preyasree as a batswoman,” a source said. “I spotted their talent and began to coach them around four years ago. During the Covid period, both were trained in my house, which bore great results later. They were mainly given physical training indoors as the fields were not available due to the pandemic,” said Mr Das. The cricketers, in turn, said they too were very happy about the pick. “I am very happy and I never thought that I will have a career in cricket, though I was always a sports lover,” Miss Das said. Miss Pramanik, on the other hand, said, “With this, expectations have soared high from us and we are determined to do well.”

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