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India vs Australia: When humble MS Dhoni declined to inaugurate the ‘Dhoni Pavilion’
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is quintessentially a modest man and no wonder he has politely declined to inaugurate the pavilion named after him at the JSCA Stadium, ahead of India’s third ODI against Australia
Around a fortnight back, the pavilion at the southern end of the main park of the Jharkhand State Cricket Association International Stadium Complex was named after the state’s most famous player.
As dusk fell on the picturesque ground where everything looks shiny even eight years after the first Ranji Trophy match between Jharkhand and Hyderabad was played, ‘M.S. Dhoni Pavilion’ glowed bright against the dying of the light.
It would fit if there was a small inauguration when former India skipper Dhoni and his India mates came for training on Thursday morning ahead of the third One-day International against Australia.
“When we proposed that, he simply said, ‘that would make me feel like an outsider in my home,’” said Debasish Chakraborty, the state association’s secretary on Wednesday evening.
“Dhoni said that he is honoured by the gesture and we let the matter drop.”
Whenever he is in town, Dhoni spends most of the afternoon and evening at the stadium complex, be it at the gymnasium or having a net session or playing billiards, said Chakraborty.
He even drove down at 6:30am when Jharkhand’s Ranji Trophy players were training and spent four hours supervising their Yo-Yo Tests, said Chakraborty.
“It is on Dhoni’s suggestion that we have laid out nine pitches in the complex getting soil from Maharashtra and Odisha”, said the official.
Dhoni felt that Jharkhand’s players should get used to playing on all kinds of surfaces and if that happens, the reputation of the association’s academy would grow, said Chakraborty.
By then, Chanchal Dutta Gupta, the academy head and former first-class cricketer, had walked in.
“Well after midnight after an international match Dhoni was leaving when he found a group of boys waiting to take a picture. Not only did Dhoni oblige, he made sure that another picture got taken so that the boy who took the first photograph wasn’t left out,” he said.
