By IANS
Ranchi : “Jharkhand ka laal, tune kiya kamal!” (The son of Jharkhand has done wonders!) was the reaction in Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s home town here Tuesday after he was named captain of Team India for the first three one-day cricket internationals against Australia beginning Sep 29.
Overjoyed fans of Dhoni gathered at the Albert Ekka and Lalpur Chowk beating drums and rubbing ‘gulaal’ (coloured powder) on each other’s face to celebrate the occasion.
They danced to the drum beats and shouted “Dhoni Zindabad! Tum Sourav se bhi acha captain banoge!” (You will break the record of Sourav Ganguly as captain).
“This is a historic day for people of Jharkhand. No one had imagined that a Ranchi boy will become captain of the Indian team,” said Santosh Ojha, a Ranchi College student and an ardent Dhoni fan.
Echoing the sentiment, another Dhoni fanatic, Somnath Chatterjee, said: “Dhoni is the first player from Jharkhand to play for the country in Indian cricket history and now he has become captain of the Indian team.”
People of Jharkhand appeared to have forgotten Dhoni’s poor performance in the World Cup this year. Dhoni failed to score in two of the three matches India played and angry fans had then attacked the player’s under-construction house.
Dhoni had to wait for weeks before returning to Ranchi after the World Cup to avoid the fans’ wrath.
The Jharkhand government also congratulated the son of the soil Tuesday.
“It matter to great pride that our city boy has become the captain of the Indian cricket team. We will give him a surprise gift when he comes to Ranchi. I had predicted that he will be captain when he became captain of Twenty20 team,” said Chief Minister Madhu Koda.