Lauding legendary Indian wicketkeeper-batter Mahendra Singh Dhoni for having made cricket number one sports and inspiring many to play it, Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Friday is hopeful of many players eager to surpass former skipper 'Thala's' records in the sport.
Earlier on Friday, it was reported that the BCCI retired Dhoni's iconic No.7 jersey as a gesture to the World Cup-winning captain. Thakur's reaction comes after this news.
“Mahendra Singh Dhoni has earned crores of fans during his career. Be it IPL or Indian Cricket, from 2007 to 2011, from T20 to ODI World Cup to Test Championship, Dhoni made the Indian cricket team the number one team.
After watching him, many people took inspiration and started playing cricket. Hopefully, in the future many such players will come who will surpass Dhoni," said Thakur to ANI.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice president, Rajeev Shukla, has welcomed the decision to retire MS Dhoni's No.7 jersey and hailed his contribution to Indian cricket.
Dhoni is the second Indian player after the legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar for whom BCCI has decided to retire his jersey. Tendulkar had jersey No.10 and BCCI retired it in 2017.
Shukla welcomed the decision. "The decision of BCCI is an honour for MS Dhoni because of his contribution to Indian cricket. He has immensely contributed to world cricket and Indian cricket.
"This is a good decision. No.7, which was associated with him, cannot be diluted...someone else who could have had that number," Shukla told ANI.
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