By News18,Rudransh Khurana
Copyright news18
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s new president-to-be, Mithun Manhas, is considered in Delhi circles as a ‘bright’ and ‘street smart’ guy who knows when to be in the right place and ‘what to say’ at the right time. There are several stories floating around about him from his time in Delhi’s cricket.
In an interview with news agency PTI, an anonymous former cricketer remembered how Manhas was the Delhi captain when Virat Kohli’s captain passed away in December 2006 in the middle of a Ranji Trophy game against Karnataka. He remembered how Manhas knew the right thing to do at that moment.
“Mithun was the captain when Virat lost his dad in the middle of a Ranji game and Delhi were in trouble. Despite that, Mithun told Virat to go home, and when he insisted on playing, Mithun agreed. That was one part,” the former cricketer said.
Then, he also remembered that Manhas knew how to be friends with the right people, suggesting that it helped his IPL career: 514 runs in 55 matches at a strike rate of 109.36, with no half-centuries or centuries.
“At the other end, most of his friends were powerful international players like Viru (Virender Sehwag) and Yuvi (Yuvraj). Despite a modest T20 record, he played 55 IPL games for Delhi Daredevils (when Sehwag was skipper), Pune Warriors, and Kings XI Punjab (Yuvraj). Viru and Mithun at one point were thick as thieves,” the player added.
The same pattern has been spotted right from the start, when he knew which club to choose to propel his career and how long to stay with that club.
“His cricketing credentials was more than decent but he knew what he needed and for how long. He wasn’t a thoroughbred Sonnet kid like Raman bhaiyya (Lamba), Ajay bhaiyya (Sharma), Bhasi bhai (KP Bhaskar), Aakash (Chopra) or for that matter of fact Ashish (Nehra) or Rishabh (Pant). He was around in Sonnet till his Delhi selection and once he got his job in ONGC in sports quota, he wasn’t much of a Sonnet man,” the cricketer said.
