MP’s Gully Boy blooms at 37, among top wicket-takers in T20 league

Indore: On a sunny February morning in Bhopal, 37-year-old Devendra Singh Katheit stood in a queue of aspiring cricketers, most of them nearly half his age. Some were active club players.For Devendra, it was much more than a trial. It marked the revival of a dream he had buried almost two decades ago.Today, the left-arm pacer from Bhopal is one of the leading wicket-takers in MPL 2026, sharing the field with some of Madhya Pradesh’s biggest cricketing names, including Rajat Patidar and Venkatesh Iyer.Picked for the Royal Nimar Eagles through the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association’s (MPCA) Player Development Programme (PDP), the left-arm medium pacer has picked up 11 scalps in just seven matches in the ongoing MPL season, emerging among the top 10 bowlers of the tournament.However, the journey to this stage began with heartbreak. In 1994, Devendra was just six-year-old when he lost his father, a BHEL employee. His mother was suddenly left with the responsibility of raising two children, including Devendra’s elder sister, who was then all of 10.Cricket, however, remained the young boy’s escape from the family’s daily grind and hardship. Growing up in the BHEL government quarters, he spent countless hours playing gully cricket with friends.

At the age of 10, he joined the BHEL Cricket Club, where his fascination with fast bowling deepened.“I still remember watching Sanjay Pandey practise there. He was one of Madhya Pradesh’s leading fast bowlers at the time and I was fascinated, watching him from close quarters. I wanted to learn fast bowling professionally,” Devendra told TOI.Cricket was more than a pastime for young Devendra. While his friends gushed about batters, he was captivated by fast bowlers.

Wasim Akram and later Zaheer Khan were his heroes, as he spent countless evenings in the BHEL colony trying to imitate their left-arm action with a tennis ball in hand.But cricket soon collided with reality. After a few years at the club, he realised that pursuing the sport in earnest would place an additional burden on a family already struggling financially.“My mother worked extremely hard to educate both my sister and myself.

I understood the situation at home. I realised it was my responsibility to focus on studies and build a stable future for myself and my family,” he said.Though he stepped away from professional cricket training, he never left the sport for good. He played football, volleyball and represented his school and college in cricket tournaments. Yet, the ambition of becoming a cricketer gradually slipped into the background.A turning point came in 2017 when he secured a clerical position with SBI. Financial stability allowed him to reconnect with cricket through the bank’s in-house team and inter-circle tournaments.“That was the first time I could afford to play cricket with my own salary. The passion was always there, but I never imagined I would, someday, share a ground with some of the best players in Madhya Pradesh,” he said.Earlier this year, a colleague informed him about trials being conducted under the MPCA’s Player Development Programme, a unique initiative aimed at identifying talented cricketers who had never played professional cricket.

Each MPL franchise was allowed to recruit two PDP players after talent-hunt trials across the state.Without the slightest hesitation, Devendra registered.When he arrived at the trials, he found himself surrounded by younger, fitter players with active club-cricket backgrounds. Yet he refused to be intimidated.Fate then reunited him with the cricketer who had inspired him as a child. Former Ranji pacer Sanjay Pandey, now the head coach of Royal Nimar Eagles, saw the potential in him and backed his selection.Devendra was overcome with emotion on his MPL debut, as he spotted his family watching from the stands. Among the loudest supporters was his three-year-old son, Agastya.“I always wanted my son to know that his father plays cricket,” he said, adding, “Seeing him watch me on such a big stage made all the hard work worthwhile.”For a man who once gave up cricket to support his family, the MPL has delivered something far more valuable than wickets and statistics. It has given him a second innings, and proof that some dreams don’t come with an expiry date.