We watch our favourite players playing in the field, we follow them on social media but still, we don’t know many secrets about them. There are many stories about the Indian cricket team’s dressing room. Once underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim had entered Indian dressing room but then captain of India Kapil Dev had ordered him to leave the room.
When Dawood Entered Team India Dressing Room
The incident happened during India’s tour of Pakistan in 1987. Dilip Vengsarkar revealed that during a match in Sharjah, Ibrahim had given an offer to the whole team. Vegsarkar said during an interview, “Dawood had said: ‘If you guys win the tournament, I will give all of you a Toyota car each. The offer was rejected by the team,”
Kapil Dev too talked about this incident during an interview. Kapil said, “Yes, I remember a gentleman walking into our dressing room in a game in Sharjah and wanting to talk to the players. But I asked him to leave the dressing room immediately as outsiders were not allowed. He listened to me and then walked out of the dressing room without saying anything. Later, someone told me he was a smuggler from Bombay and his name was Dawood Ibrahim.”
BCCI secretary of that time, Jaywant Lele has also mentioned this incident in his book. He had written about the Toyota car offer in a chapter. Lele wrote, “If the Indian team becomes champion here, I shall present a Toyota car to each team member, including officials, at their doorsteps in India. As bad luck would have it, India lost the tournament. Australia were declared champions on the basis of a higher run rate, as Australia, England and India earned equal points! After the results were declared most team members were not in tears, but that man (Dawood) was.”
Dawood Ibrahim was the mastermind of dastardly Mumbai blasts in 1993 since then he is most wanted by India with a reward of 25 million dollars. Dawood is wanted on the charges of murder, extortion, targeted killing, drug trafficking, terrorism and various other cases. He is originally from Dongri in Mumbai, India. He is believed to be living in Pakistan.