THE DAY after Kranti Gaud wins the player-of-the match award for her three wickets against Pakistan in the ICC Women’s World Cup game in Colombo, her family in Ghuwara, a nagar panchayat in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, receives the ultimate honour. The narrator at the ongoing Shiv Mahapuran Katha in Ghuwara praises Kranti, India’s newest 22-year-old pace sensation, from the dais in front of a 5,000-strong congregation.

“Sirf Ghuwara ko iss beti pe ghamand nahin hai, aaj pure Bharat ko iss beti pe ghamand hai (Not just people in Ghuwara, the entire nation is proud of Kranti),” says “Maharaj ji” Vipin Bihari, a popular preacher in Bundelkhand who has clocked a lakh subscribers on his YouTube channel.

Bihari then asks the person recording the spiritual discourse to train his camer

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