Mahi of Midnapore
Siddhartha Talya
25-Feb-2013
AFP
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's friends reminisce about his years before becoming the renowned cricketer he is today. His days as a ticket-collector on the Kharagpur railway platform and the khep khela tennis-ball matches he excelled in, are just some of the many snippets of his formative years as national cricketer that his friends discuss with Rith Basu of the Kolkata-based Telegraph.
“He rode the bike with us, played with us, ate with us, spoke our language…We fought amongst ourselves and then made up. And then suddenly he makes it big in no time, like a fairy tale. We never imagined he had it in him,” says Soma, who used to keep wickets to Dhoni’s bowling for the para team, Durga Sporting. Yes, Dhoni also bowled then. “He used to bowl pretty fast. When he bowled with a leather ball, it even swung,” adds Soma.
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“Once, after he received the man-of-the-match trophy from Bengal spinner Shiv Sagar Singh at the tournament finals in Panskura in 2002, Mahi was asked to say something. But he just told the organiser apologetically: “Mujhe bolna nahin ata (I can’t make a speech).” This same guy is so articulate now. His speech is so polished. It’s like magic,” says Sinha.
Siddhartha Talya is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo