Published>Fri, Mar 19 10 10:06 AM
The Tuesday night injury that put Mahendra Singh Dhoni out of the IPL for an estimated 10 days might have also shut out - or put back - a potentially touching cricket-field reunion.
Had the India skipper played the Chennai Super Kings's game against the Delhi Daredevils at the Kotla on Friday, there was a chance he might have run into - perhaps even locked horns with - an old friend who has bowled many overs to him, but whom he has not seen in a decade.
It's a story that Jharkhand-born right-arm off-break bowler Shashi Ranjan, now with the Daredevils, shies away from telling - the story of how he persuaded the man who was then just a dashing young Bihar player (Jharkhand Cricket Association did not exist then) with enormous potential to come to Delhi and raise his game by playing at a higher level.
As Dhoni became the toast of Indian cricket, Ranjan's career sputtered. He moved between Rajasthan and Jharkhand in first-class cricket, and between club cricket in Delhi and Worcester, where he dabbled in a bit of coaching as well.
"I came to Delhi from Bihar to practise at the National Stadium," says the 28-year-old. "Back home, I had seen Dhoni score a lot of runs and I would often ask him to come to Delhi too." Having seen the level of cricket in the capital, Ranjan's advice to Dhoni was simple: practise at the National Stadium, play on good wickets and take on better players. "If you can do as well against them, you will be noticed," he says he told Dhoni.
Dhoni took his advice. "He came and played a lot of club cricket for Delhi Blues," says Ranjan. "Senior players like (former Delhi and India bowler) Vivek Razdan and others saw him and said he had great potential."
This season, Ranjan's own career got an unexpected lease of life. Late last year, a friend urged him to go to the Bharat Nagar Sports Complex where India opener Gautam Gambhir - his former teammate at the capital's Hindu College - practises. "Though we were in the same batch at college, Gambhir did not know me well. He liked my bowling and asked me to bowl at the Delhi Ranji camp nets. I went there and got a good response from the selectors, including Hari Gidwani," says Ranjan.
Subsequently Gambhir, captain of the Daredevils, helped him land a contract with Delhi's IPL team.
"Everyone asked me where I had been... But I was very much here - I have not missed practice for even a single day in the last 10 years. Now, because the National Stadium is being renovated (for the Commonwealth Games), I practise at the Central Secretariat ground."
Ranjan learnt his craft from the great Bishan Singh Bedi. "Bedi sir is my guru, he has taught me a lot and I am fortunate that I have spent so much time with him," he says. He adds that he now wants to live up to the "faith that Gambhir has reposed in my abilities".
And Dhoni? Ranjan says he will "surprise" the India captain whenever they meet. "Maybe he knows I have got a contract, maybe he doesn't, but hopefully I will get him out..."
Source: Web Search
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