The Hindu : Sport : Letting their hair down

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 25, 2007
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Letting their hair down

Durban: Basking in the glory of their stunning triumph over mighty Australia, Indian cricketers let their hair down and indulged in a long night of celebration that began in the dressing room and ended with a victory dinner at the team hotel.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s young squad was over the moon after stunning world champion Australia to enter the Twenty20 World Cup final. Dhoni himself was heard rehearsing for a sing-song session, while the crooner in Irfan Pathan too found himself in demand.

Private celebration

Right after the win, the team shut itself up from public eye to have their own celebration in the privacy of the dressing room.

“The boys were singing and dancing with joy. They cheered each other wildly and hugged every colleague, praising each other’s performances on the field. It was quite a sight, a memory to last a lifetime,” said manager Lalchand Rajput.

For someone whose voice has been well appreciated by Sachin Tendulkar, Irfan Pathan was all charged up for a long session of singing. “This has been an unbelievable performance. Our first round exit in the World Cup left us with some sad memories but now I can afford to enjoy our success,” said Pathan who just couldn’t stop singing.

“Today I will sing whatever song my colleagues would request me to sing,” he said.

Dhoni a la Kishore Kumar

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni too was in a mood to showcase his passion for singing. He was humming “...iske aage ki ab dastan mujh se sun, sun ke teri nazar dab daba jayeegi...”, a Kishore Kumar number from ‘Mukaddar Ka Sikandar’ and was also very keen to sing it for his teammates at the celebratory dinner that started around mid-night.

“This is one of my favourite songs and I’m just rehearsing it,” said Dhoni.

“You guys talked about a dream final but I was focused on taking one match at a time. But, somehow, after Pakistan’s win over New Zealand, I felt if we could stay calm and confident and concentrate on playing well, we could surprise Australia. And that we ended up doing!”

Full of fans

And when the team returned to the hotel well past 11 pm, they were pleasantly surprised to see every inch of the lobby being occupied by Indian fans armed with their cameras, flags and autograph books. Once the players trooped in one after the other, they were lustily cheered even as securitymen stood in a straight line to ensure a smooth passage for the players.

With beaming faces, the players obliged as many fans as they could and shook hands before retiring to their rooms. — PTI

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