Captain cool goes for a ride

Kolkata, February 22 

The South Eastern Railway served a very special passenger last night when its former employee Mahendra Singh Dhoni preferred to travel by train with his Jharkhand One-day cricket team from Ranchi to Howrah to participate in the Vijay Hazare Trophy here. Rewinding the clock back to his days in the early 2000s when he was posted as a ticket inspector in Kharagpur, Dhoni travelled in second-tier AC of the Kriya Yoga Express.

Dhoni, who will lead Jharkhand, did not ask for any special service in his first train ride in more than 13 years.

“They (Jharkhand) did not have a special coach reserved for them and Dhoni travelled with his team and other co-passengers. They had a block booking for 23 passengers including Dhoni,” South Eastern Railway chief public relations officer Sanjoy Ghosh said.

Dhoni boarded the train at 9.40 pm in Ranchi and disembarked at Howrah at 6.50 am this morning. “We had prior information about this and so we had arranged special security when they boarded in Ranchi last night and upon their arrival this morning in Howrah,” Ghosh said.

Dhoni was employed by SER as a TTE from September 2001 till July 2004. — PTI