Wednesday, May 22, 2013

WHAT 'SAKSHI DHONI' GOT TO DO WITH 'IPL SPOT-FIXING'?

By Ashok Rai / Mumbai

The joke making the rounds of Twitter might actually be true in the case of Vindoo Dara Singh. Given the extremely patchy record he has in the Hindi film industry – a handful of bit roles and a Big Boss win, prized only to wannabe/failed actors – calling him IPL spot-fixing’s first ‘Bollywood’ link is actually doing him a great favour. Except for this one time, no one has ever bothered to call Vindoo a Bollywood star before. The questionable nature of his celebrity-hood is evident from the fact that even in a scandal he seems to have direct links to, it is someone else who seems to be hogging the spotlight. Even as Mumbai Police rounded up Vindoo, the buzz in the media was less about him and more about Sakshi Dhoni, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s wife. The reason? She was seen in a picture cheering for Chennai Super Kings alongside Vindoo.
In fact Vindoo gave an interview to a vernacular daily talking about the few hours he spent at the stands with Sakshi. “Sakshi asked me to come and sit with her.” The same interview also quotes Vindoo saying that after the picture of him chit-chatting with Sakshi was published, he got close to ‘thousand calls’ asking him about his relationship with the star couple.

And like all ‘celebrities’ giving interviews to tabloids, Vindoo chooses to not throw much light on their relationship and says ‘they’ve met a few times’. Of course there are the usual platitudes that follow – about the overwhelming ’sweetness’ and ‘niceness’ of Dhoni’s wife. Something that might not amuse Sakshi anymore.

Because the moment Vindoo’s ‘links’ with Sakshi and hence, Dhoni were established, no time was lost in finding ‘links’ between Sakshi and the biggest culprit of them all – Sreesanth. So what if Sreesanth and Dhoni have played for the country together, belong to the same cricketing inner circle and had no reason to not have ‘links’ with each other till a few days back, everything to do with Sreesanth at present is of course, earth shattering, breaking news.

So, out tumbled Sakshi’s alleged links with Sreesanth. And what are they?

According to reports, Sreesanth knows Atul Jhala who is an Assistant Manager with ‘Palace on Wheels’, the luxury train that takes you on an overpriced trip around Rajasthan.

Apparently, Atul’s daughter and Sakshi went to hotel management college together in Aurangabad. Reports say that it was Sakshi who introduced Sreesanth to Jhala’s daughter. After grilling Jhala’s family, the police seized a Blackberry Z10 that the cricketer seems to have gifted Sakshi’s friend, possibly because he took a fancy to her. The same phone that TV channels allege had been bought with match-fixing money! The report also says that Sakshi also introduced the said friend who acquired the phone from Sreesanth to several other cricketers.

While Sakshi’s evidently not very clever socialising ways have put her under the scanner, Dhoni fans are not amused about the allegations.

Let’s hope this holds true for Sakshi Dhoni, who’ll henceforth start taking her WAG-hood responsibilities with a little more sombreness.

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