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| March 19, 2007 | Monday | Safar 29, 1428 |
Irate fans storm Dhoni’s home
RANCHI (India), March 18: Furious Indian cricket fans stormed the home of national wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday to protest a five-wicket rout by Bangladesh in the World Cup match, police said.
Some 200 fans brought down walls and pillars of Dhoni's house, which is under construction, in the eastern city of Ranchi to protest the 26-year-old player's performance in India's shocking defeat.
India were all out for 191, with Dhoni returning to the pavilion without scoring in India's match on Saturday, a shock to the cricket-mad country of 1.1 billion people.
“Dhoni die, die,” protesters chanted, burning effigies of the long-maned player, who has scored 1,958 runs in 68 One-day International matches and is counted among India's most aggressive batsmen, an AFP reporter at the site reported.Dhoni's hometown, Ranchi, is the capital of Jharkhand state, which last year gave Dhoni a 360 square metre (4,000 square feet) plot of land to build a house on.
The protesters screamed anti-Dhoni slogans and demanded the withdrawal of the prime residential plot worth five million rupees ($110,000).
“It seems Dhoni is banking more on modelling than wicket-keeping and batting,” said Sohan Mahto, one of the protesters.
State authorities, meanwhile, deployed paramilitary units at the nearby home of the under-fire player's family to prevent possible attacks, a police spokesman said.—AFP
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