19 March,2016 08:34 AM IST | | Ashwin Ferro
Did MSD decide to skip commercial event because he would've been asked why he was not present at customary pre-match press conference?
Can't please everyone: Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Kolkata: The mention of MS Dhoni on an email invitation raised a few eyebrows in the media contingent here yesterday. It was evident that the India captain gave his nod to attend the commercial event at Taj Bengal yesterday evening. This, after Ravichandran Ashwin and not Dhoni, interacted with the media at the customary pre-match press conference.
Can't please everyone: Mahendra Singh Dhoni
The evening event where Dhoni was to announce a mobile and web content initiative partnered by his friend and manager Arun Pandey's company Rhiti Sports, turned out to be a damp squib with a no-show from Dhoni as well as Pandey for whom name plates and chairs were left on the dais. With the crucial Indo-Pak match less than 24 hours away, tongues began wagging among mediapersons who wondered why would Dhoni be at an event so close to the international fixture? Eventually and rightly so, given the significance of today's high octane clash, Dhoni pulled out at the 11th hour.
The official word from the event organisers was that the Indian team management did not want the India captain to interact with the media and instead focus solely on the match ahead. The inside dope, however, is that Dhoni had merely taken verbal consent from the BCCI to attend this event and later backed out after he realised that there was no written permission obtained. He would have also been asked by the media about his decision to miss the pre-match press conference but turn up for a media interaction at a commercial event.
