Amid coronavirus pandemic followed by worldwide lockdown, cricketers be it former or currently active players are shifting towards social media platforms to entertain their fans. They are coming up with some interesting stories which the followers of the game are usually not aware of.
Following the trend, former Indian middle-order batsman Mohammad Kaif shared an incident when he had invited the whole Indian team to his home for dinner. Kaif recalled the event and said that he was hosting the players for the first time. Kaif remembered how he got nervous while attending his teammates like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and coach Greg Chappell.
“I invited all Indian cricketers to my house in 2006 in Noida. Greg Chappell, Sourav Ganguly and many others were invited, and I was nervous about how to take care of such big personalities. I was busy with Sachin and other big players at that time,” said Kaif while speaking to SportScreen.
Kaif stated that in an attempt to impress the senior players, he couldn’t attend the then juniors appropriately. Some juniors like MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and a few others were sitting together in a different room, but the former UP captain was busy with the senior players. Kaif said that he still remembers how Dhoni passed a funny taunt that he didn’t look after him when he came to his home.
“Juniors MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and others were sitting in one room and seniors like Sachin, Ganguly were sitting in another room, I spent most of my time sitting with seniors, without giving proper attention to juniors,” added Kaif.
Kaif humorously said that ‘not serving’ Biryani properly to Dhoni cost him his comeback in the national side when the Ranchi-born became the captain of the Indian team in 2007. After 2006, Kaif was sidelined from the Indian side, and he never donned the Indian jersey again.
“MS might have felt that I didn’t look after him properly as a host. Probably, that was the reason why I couldn’t make a comeback when MS Dhoni became a captain in 2007 (laughs). He always reminds me saying ‘I came home and you didn’t look after me properly’,” Kaif wittily said.
