Previous India captain Sunil Gavaskar has approached to help the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) find the ball which vanished into the stands on the notable night India won its second ICC World Cup in 2011. The governing body was wanting to deify the occasion, and furthermore honor Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who hit the match-winning six, by naming the seat where the ball would have arrived after him.
While the inquiry was in progress, Gavaskar educated the MCA that the observer who got the ball happens to be an associate of Gavaskar’s companion.
The quest for the specific spot and the match-ball began a month ago when the 39-year-old declared his retirement from international cricket. MCA Apex Council member Ajinkya Naik had composed a letter to the administering body with respecting Dhoni with a permanent seat in the spot where the ball would have arrived in the Wankhede Stadium.
“As an act of gratitude and tribute to his immense contribution to Indian cricket, the MCA can devote a permanent seat on his name at the pavilion where his famous World Cup-winning six had landed,” read Naik’s letter, which had been accessed by The Indian Express.
“We can paint and decorate the seat in a unique way to celebrate Dhoni’s association with Wankhede Stadium… We can have a plaque on that seat with some special text to honour that moment.”
That spot has now been distinguished as seat number 210 in the MCA Pavilion, L Block. Furthermore, the individual possessing the match ball has additionally been recognized.
“Gavaskar informed Ajinkya that his friend knows the person who was at that spot, and even has the ball with him,” an MCA member said.
It is expected that the MCA may request Gavaskar to help connecting with the spectator – who has set the ball in a display-case which additionally has the laminated match ticket.
The news has come at a fortunate second for the MCA, who had as of late acknowledged a solicitation by the Maharashtra government to open the Wankhede Stadium and permit tours through the venue for guests.
The possibility of a specific seat, and not a whole stand, being named after a player is a curiosity in India, however isn’t an outsider idea abroad.
Simon O’Donnell’s 122-meter six out of a First Class coordinate at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1993 has been remembered with the seat where the ball landed being painted yellow. Essentially, in 2018, at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Big Bash League establishment Melbourne Renegade respected their previous player Brad Hodge by painting a third-level seat red, where Hodge’s 96-meter six arrived in what was his last match as a player.
Furthermore, in Auckland, New Zealand, a plaque was put on a seat where Grant Elliot hit a six that made sure about the nation’s first appearance in the final of a World Cup, in 2015.
Dhoni, whose title-winning shot off Sri Lankan pacer Nuwan Kulasekara’s bowling, will currently join that first class list.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Buzz Illustrated journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.