Dhoni and boys to bat for Tihar

The Indian captain, Gambhir and Kartik will play a few overs at the prison's Twenty20 cricket final

Dhoni and boys to bat for Tihar

The Indian captain, Gambhir and Kartik will play a few overs at the prison's Twenty20 cricket final

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, opening batsman Gautam Gambhir and left arm spinner Murali Kartik are getting ready for an innings at Delhi's Tihar Jail.

No, they are not going to be put behind bars. They are planning to heat up the pitch during the Twenty20 Tihar Winter Olympics cricket final to be held next week.

"The cricketers will play a few overs to encourage the participating teams which are made up only of Tihar prisoners. There is great enthusiasm about the final match in the prison," said a jail official, requesting anonymity.

While Tihar is not new to celebrity events, this is for the first time that the Men in Blue will take part in a match inside the prison.

Though SK Gupta, the public relations officer of Tihar Jail, refused to reveal the names of the cricketers who would be participating in the final match, he accepted that "a few big names were coming to Tihar."

"Some famous cricketers will participate in the match and it was to accommodate their schedules that the final has been postponed by a week," said Gupta. The final match was earlier supposed to be held this week.

Murali Kartik, who spoke to MiD DAY, said that he had received an invitation to attend the Tihar cricket final and was eager to do so. "I cannot comment about Gautam Gambhir and Mahendra Singh Dhoni but I am going to be there next week," Kartik said.

Gautam Gambhir refused to divulge any details about his plans and said he would inform the media later. "Let's talk about this tomorrow," said Gambhir.