18-yr-old camps at Vadodara for Pathan

It was love, or rather clean bowled, at first sight for Preeti (name changed), an 18-year-old orphan from Punjab. So much so that she left her hometown Joginder Nagar near Ludhiana to come all the way to Vadodara to propose marriage to Irfan Pathan, Indian cricket team’s star bowler, with only her 15-year-old sister Simran for company. The sisters, now at Vadodara’s Nari Sanrakshan Gruh, say they left Punjab for Delhi around June 30. Two days later, they reached Vadodara and took a rickshaw from the railway station for what they thought was Irfan’s residence at the Jumma Masjid.

‘‘Back home, everyone is crazy about cricket. A neighbour gave us Irfan’s address in Vadodara,’’ says Preeti. To their disappointment, the girls discovered that the cricketer had moved. ‘‘Desperate to meet Irfan, the girls were asking around for a place on rent when a rickshawallah noticed them and brought them to us,’’ says superintendent at the Nari Sanrakshan Gruh, Rashmi Joshi. ‘‘We tried to get in touch with their brother with whom they reportedly stay but haven’t heard from anyone yet,’’ she adds.

Hailing from a lower middle class family in Punjab, the sisters say they lost both their parents and a sister a few years ago in a road accident. Having moved in with their elder brother, the sisters claim life back home isn’t a bed of roses. ‘‘Simran had been going to school till last year. I have had no education and used to work as a domestic help or look after the small plot of ancestral land. Our brother rarely stays home and does odd jobs for a living,’’ says Preeti.

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‘‘I have loved Irfan ever since I first watched him on television playing his first match. I am here to propose marriage to him. If he says no, I will go back,’’ says Preeti as her sister tries to suppress a smile.

Besides Irfan, Preeti and Simran are also fans of Saurav Ganguly, ‘‘Woh to bhai lagta hai hamara,’’ chorus the sisters.

Their passion, though, has not gone unnoticed. Joshi says, ‘‘My friends have assured me that they will try and bring Irfan here after the Asia Cup so that the girls can meet him.’’

Till then, the sisters are glued to the telly, watching Irfan’s exploits on the pitch.