MS Dhoni invites his Kharagpur friends for dinner in team hotel after Vijay Hazare clash

Former India captain MS Dhoni took us down the memory lane during the Vijay Hazare Trophy in the Eden Gardens where he smashed an unbeaten 129 which took his state team Jharkhand to their maiden win of the tournament. Dhoni’s joy knew no bounds when he saw his friends from Kharagpur where his cricketing journey had started.

Eleven of his friends from the days he was a ticket collector in Kharagpur came over to the Eden Gardens to watch him play. Chairman of Kharagpur Corporation Pradip Sarkar, his former Ranji teammate Satyaprakash Krishna, Robin Kumar, Anand, Thomas, Aniket Das were among his friends who came to meet Dhoni.

They had met Dhoni on several occasions after he had become a celebrity. His behaviour or camaraderie with his friends is still the same which used to be when he was a ticket collector of the South Eastern Railway. While coming out of the stadium, Dhoni met his friend Thomas who has a tea stall at Kharagpur. His relation with Dhoni has always been pretty special. Dhoni went and hugged him immediately and invited him for a dinner in the team hotel. “I will serve you a grand dinner,” Dhoni was quoted as saying by Xtratime. Thomas was left spellbound and his reaction was just a testimony of Dhoni’s words after meeting his old friend.

“When Dhoni Bhai was in Kharagpur, he used to visit my shop two or three times a day to have tea. Many times I served him hot milk in that period. After today’s incident, I will go back to Kharagpur and name my shop ‘Dhoni Tea Stall’,” Thomas said.

Among those who turned up Satyaprakash Krishna was the closest to Mahi and treated him as a younger brother during his thick and thin.

Also read: After train ride from Ranchi, MS Dhoni to stay at CAB Academy in Kalyani

It was Satyaprakash who spoke to the DRM of Kharagpur AK Ganguly to give him the job of a ticket collector in the Railways where he was given a monthly stipend of Rs. 5000. Relieving all the old memories, Satyaprakash said that during his days the facilities weren’t quite there and it was Dhoni’s exceptional talent which made selectors take a notice of him only after playing a handful of matches.

”We had limited resources to live with at Kharagpur. We used to play a few tennis ball cricket tournaments and four or five Ranji matches in a season for Bihar. It was Dhoni’s God-gifted ability and his performance which helped him to be a part of the Indian National Team by playing only those few matches.” Satyaprakash said.

He also recalled the night of the 2003 World Cup final where the Sourav Ganguly-led Team India lost to Australia by a huge margin. ”In 2003 World Cup final when India was chasing the huge 360 runs, we were watching the game after returning from our office. From the first delivery, Dhoni was saying that India can only reach the score if Sachin remains on the crease until the end. He respects Sachin like a God. When Sachin got out to McGrath, Dhoni straight went to the kitchen to make some tea. He didn’t watch the match after that,” Satyaprakash added.

Following the Vijay Hazare tie against Chattisgarh, Dhoni invited all his eleven friends to the dressing room and then to the team hotel where a special dinner was awaiting all of them. They were really surprised seeing such a gesture from Dhoni who hasn’t changed a single bit despite his stardom in the nation and elsewhere.