Virender Sehwag and Murali Kartik attend Tihar cricket match; cheer inmates like Manu Sharma, Santosh Singh
Virender Sehwag and Murali Kartik attend Tihar cricket match; cheer inmates like Manu Sharma, Santosh Singh
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Free mixing: Cricketers Virender Sehwag, Murali Kartik and Shikhar Dhawan meet prisoners during the Tihar cricket match on Monday
PIC/MID DAY |
Veeru went to jail again on Monday. But instead of chakki pising and pising and pising as his famous Bollywood namesake had announced in an iconic dialogue, this Veeru, the Prince of Najafgarh, cheered as prisoners battled it out on the cricket pitch.
As
MiD Day had first reported
(on January 6, 2009), celebrity cricketers like Virender Sehwag and left-arm spinner Murali Kartik were invited to the Tihar Winter Olympic's Twenty-20 cricket final. With them was Delhi Ranji all-rounder Shikhar Dhawan.
While the prisoners clapped for all the cricketers, it was clear from their enthusiasm that Sehwag was their favourite. The star opener too seemed bowled over.
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"I am overwhelmed. My opinion about a prisoner's life has changed. Seeing the inmates play cricket, I have realised they live ordinary lives. I enjoyed the match," said Sehwag, while interacting with the prisoners.
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Infamous: Prisoner Santosh Singh (above) plays, as fellow inmate RK Sharma watches |
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The stars cheered the two teams from Jail No 1 and Jail No 2. Santosh Singh, who has been awarded death sentence in the Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case, led the first team while Manu Sharma, the prime convict in model Jessica Lal's murder, was the captain of the second team. Former IPS officer RK Sharma, convicted for the murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar, preferred to sit it out.
As the game progressed, about 1,000 prisoners watching from the stands danced and sang at every ball. The prison loudspeakers kept the mood up with peppy numbers like Chak De India. The fall of a wicket or a sixer drew Govinda-style dance moves from the enthusiastic crowd, making it hard for the jail police to control them.
The commentator, another prisoner, pulled a fast one as the Twenty20 match ended in a nail-biting draw. Jail No 2, which was batting, had to score two runs in the last ball. The commentator said Manu Sharma, who is a politician's son, and was leading the team, had planned the final over like a true politician. But his team could only score a single run.
With a score of 47 runs, Obiad Ahad Babu, 32, from Jail No 1 was announced the Man of the Match. Obiad, who has been inside Tihar for the last three years, hails from Srinagar and alleged that he had been falsely implicated by the Delhi Police Special Cell in 2005. "I have been playing cricket for the last three years. Now I want to go out of these high corridors and play outside," he said.
Director-General of Tihar BK Gupta, who had organised the match, said "I am grateful that the Indian cricketers had come. And no where in the world is there a jail where the inmates are free to play a match like this."
