My Travels With the Indian Team - 718

 MY TRAVELS WITH THE INDIAN CRICKET TEAM 

          


 The above Title I am  sure is going  to confuse many and most  People  would  have got me wrong about my place in the Indian Cricket Team.

Lest this confuse my friends , barring a  few occasions when I was a spectator at the Eden Gardens , Calcutta ,  The Brabourne Stadium in Bombay or the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore is about the closest that I have got to the International players .

From my  Schooldays onwards , for some strange  reason my favorite Cricketers tag have always been  with a PAIR  , Pataudi/Borde , Gavaskar/Vishwanath , Gavaskar/Kapil Dev Gavaskar/Srikkanth , Ganguly/Sehwag, Sehwag/Tendulkar, Tendulkar/Dravid , Dravid/Sehwag  , Virat/Rohit , Jadeja/Suryakumar, Jaiswal/Shubman , Ishan Kishan/Sanju Samson  , Hardik/Dubey 

One Conspicuous  name missing in that list  is that of the THALAIVAA  Mahendra Singh  Dhoni . He has been the SINGLE lone favorite of most Cricket lovers .

 Captain Cool Dhoni s unmatched credentials as CAPTAIN , BATSMAN ,WICKETKEEPER of TEST , ODI , T20 and IPL Is likely to remain unmatched . Despite calling it  quits  from all forms of  International Cricket , his exploits in the IPL for the CSK is a sure crowd puller .

His exploits in this years IPL have been phenomenal   His very Name with the Brand Name CSK has seen large crowds in their YELLOW JERSEYS rooting for their THALAIVAR . His fan following have been such that the Local outfits in Mumbai , Calcutta,  Bangalore or Ahmedabad have had to play a second fiddle .

His two innings among the many that he has played  stand out  in my mind .The first was the 3rd India / Sri Lanka ODI at Jaipur on Oct 31st 2005 , where he scored 183 not out  . I watched this match at a Lodge near Coimbatore Railway Station with my close  Sasmira Friend  PARASU IYER . I will be only honest to admit that DHONI S  long hair and general demeanor hardly impressed anyone and  least of all me at the start  . But as the famous Tamizh filmy quip  goes 

PAARKA PAARKA THAAN PIDIKKUM  ( you will like a person only after seeing him repeatedly and his  Awesome deeds )

His last ODI , in the World Cup where he almost got us home in the company of Jadeja is still fresh in the mind .



Dhoni will always remain  my favorite.  One reason could be because of his connection with KHARAGPUR  where he started both his Career in the Indian Railways and also played Cricket as a rookie.  I too have fond and lasting memories with Kharagpur . He did mention  this connection during the Post Match Presentation  Ceremony after the STUPENDOUS victory over KKR  in their IPL Match .

In this connection it is worth mentioning that KHARAGPUR has THREE  very  Eminent Personalities  associated with it .

THREE AMONG THIS LIST ARE  EASY TO GUESS  - SUNDER PITCHAI  , THE TECH GURU    AND MAHENDER SINGH DHONI , THE CRICKETTER PAR EXCELLENCE are easy to GUESS  .

 I will leave you GUESSING  with the THIRD  Person in that list . It may be difficult to start with but you you are sure to get the answer and have a hearty Laugh at the end of it when it is rumoued that his name starts with the letter G .



  




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