Beat All Sports (BAS) – the cricket bat and other equipment manufacturer company – has played a massive role in the initial phase of former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s career.
The owner of BAS, Somi Kohli, has recently revealed how one of the dealers of the company’s equipment, Paramjeet Singh, had persuaded him for sponsoring the cricket kit of Dhoni, who was a teenager back then.
Since Dhoni was born in a middle-class family, so buying a cricket kit with limited resources was always a challenge for him. But his ‘Chotu Bhaiya’ aka Paramjeet supported Dhoni especially in his early days in cricket, be it financially or morally.
Not to mention, characters of both Somi and Paramjeet were also seen in Dhoni’s biopic movie, ‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’.
While speaking to The Indian Express, Somi said he is grateful that the company became a part of MSD’s success and the bond between them and the cricketer has been for 22 long years now.
Somi added that when he came to know about the retirement of a veteran stumper, he couldn’t believe it.
“As a cricket manufacturing company, we are always on the lookout for new talent and our dealer Paramjeet Singh had been calling me consistently to tell about this young cricketer from Ranchi. After six months of him trying to convince me, I sent the kits to Mahendra Singh Dhoni in February 1998, and it has been a 22-year-long association with him for us,” said Somi.
“When I got to know about his retirement yesterday, I could not believe it first and could not sleep for hours. He has been a gem of a cricketer, and we are glad that we could also play a part in his journey so far.”
Somi also shared an interesting story about Dhoni before the series against Pakistan in 2005, when the wicket-keeper batsman went to his place and spent a night there.
“In 2004, I first met him in Chandigarh and months later he came to Jalandhar to visit our factory. Dhoni stayed at my home, and when I told my wife Manju Kohli, she asked, “Who is he?” The next day, when I met Dhoni, he told me he could not sleep for hours thinking about my wife’s words,” revealed the BAS owner.
“Some months later, when he scored the century against Pakistan, Dhoni called us at 11 in the night and asked me if he could talk to my wife. He told her, ‘Auntie, main Dhoni.’ My wife told him, ‘Beta, now the whole world knows who Dhoni is.’ That was the bond we shared,” Somi added further.
