7 May 2007

Dhoni "woman-handled"

The following report appeared tody in the Gomantak Times today:

An over-enthusiastic teenage girl caused a flutter by breaching the security cordon and passionately embraced cricket heart-throb Mahendra Singh Dhoni on the final day of the Indian team's conditioning camp here on Sunday.

The incident occurred at the Eden Gardens after the team had wrapped up its final practice session and when the players were boarding the team bus on their way back to the hotel rooms. The ardent fan, identified as Siuli Hasina Nasrin, managed to squeeze through the tight security and ran towards the team bus with an autograph card in hand, pleading the cricketer to sign it. Dhoni, who was already inside the bus by then, came out to oblige the 19-year-old. Nasrin, a first year student from Berhampore in Murshidabad district, had been camping here for the past four days, perhaps with the sole intention of meeting her hero. And Dhoni probably thought that the girl deserved to be given his autograph.

But the teenager, short in stature, suddenly hugged and attached herself tightly to him, leaving the player and everyone around stunned. The security personnel, however, were quick to respond and relieved the wicket-keeper batsman from the girl's embrace. "I did it as I felt like it," Nasrin said later.

She claimed Dhoni had waved to her when she called out his name two days back. She was seen before the CAB club house during the team's training session for the past three days, flauting the dashing cricketer's poster. When contacted later, Deputy Commissioner P K Chatterjee said that no action was taken against the woman."

I would have liked to have seen Matthew Hoggard's reaction if the same had happened to him in England!

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