Asian Window

In Tehelka, Shantanu Guha Ray visits Ranchi to unearth Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s fairytale story of fame, glamour and money

PARAMJIT SINGH, the portly owner of a small sports shop at Ranchi’s cacophonous Sujata Chowk, where backfiring trucks, belching lorries and slow-paced cycle rickshaws create the town’s worst traffic snarl, is an unlikely mentor for Indian cricket’s biggest star. But in the unlikely, even astonishing, success of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Singh plays a catalytic role. In the mid-90s, when Dhoni was barely 15, Singh spent weeks pursuing Ludhiana-based Beat All Sports (BAS) for an annual supply of bats and specialised cricket gear (it costs Rs 15,000-20,000) for his protégé. Eventually, the owners, Sumi and Ramesh Kohli, relented and agreed to a yearly supply of eight bats and other gear.

That’s what got India captain and Ranchi homeboy Dhoni started. “It was a godsend. You can’t play the game without the equipment,” Dhoni told TEHELKA last week, relaxing at his elder sister’s home in Ranchi after the tumultuous tour of Australia and the big win down under. Dhoni’s supernova like success has meant that Singh’s Prime Sports now sells 80 bats a month: he calls it the Dhoni effect.

Trailblazing Dhoni has, in fact, transformed Ranchi, a traditional hockey town —

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