M S Dhoni won't charge any fee for being mentor of Indian team: BCCI President Sourav Ganguly
New Delhi, Oct 12: Former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will not charge any fee for mentoring the Indian cricket team during this month's T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly told PTI on Tuesday.
The iconic former captain was brought in as mentor by the BCCI last month when it announced the squad for the mega-event, scheduled to start October 17.
"Dhoni will not charge anything to mentor the Indian team," Ganguly said.
The 40-year-old Dhoni retired from international cricket last year, his last India game being the 2019 World Cup semi-final, which the team lost to New Zealand.
It is believed that Dhoni was brought in for his experience in devising near-perfect white ball strategies. He led his franchise Chennai Super Kings into the IPL finals on Sunday.
One of the most successful captains in the history of Indian cricket, the enigmatic wicketkeeper-batter led India to two world titles -- the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa and the 2011 ODI World Cup in India.
The reticent player's retirement, announced by him through an instagram post on August 15 last year, had taken the cricket world by surprise and he has not spoken even once about it after that.
The highly-respected player from Jharkhand played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20 Internationals amassing 4876, 10773 and 1617 runs respectively across formats.
He has largely kept a low profile after retiring internationally, focussing on his IPL engagements and organic farming at his home town Ranchi.
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Catholic Bishops' body slams Bhagwat's remarks
New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on Thursday slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his reported remark that Pranab Mukherjee, when he was President, had said tribals would turn "anti-national" if there is no "ghar wapsi"Catholic Bishops.'
In a statement issued here, CBCI, a body of Catholic Bishops, referred to reports which said Bhagwat, at an event on Monday, claimed that Mukherjee, while he was President had appreciated ghar wapsi and told him that had it not been for the Sangh's work on reconversion, a section of Adivasis would have turned "anti-national".The CBCI called the report "shocking".
"Fabricated personal conversation being attributed to a former president of India and its posthumous publication with the vested interest of an organization with questionable credibility raises a grave issue of national importance," the CBCI claimed.
"Is it not the violent ghar wapsi program of VHP and other similar organizations, curtailing the exercise of freedom of conscience of economically deprived tribals, the real anti-national activity?" it asked.
'Ghar wapsi' is a term used by the RSS and affiliated organisations to refer to reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, based on the belief that they were originally Hindus before converting to other religions.
The CBCI also questioned why Bhagwat did not speak about it while Mukherjee was alive.
"We, the 2.3 percent of Indian citizens who are Christians feel extremely hurt by such manipulated and motivated propaganda unleashed," it said.
In a post on X following the statement issued by CBCI, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said, "Speak up. This is a start!"
"Bishops body have issued a statement condemning remarks made by Dr Mohan Bhagwat and RSS for defaming the Christian community," he said.
O'Brien added that they should ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi more questions, including why Christmas Day has been turned into "Good Governance Day".
The TMC leader, in a blogpost earlier this month, had said "hard questions" must be asked to the government with regards to the Christian community, including why the FCRA has been 'weaponised', and why has Manipur been 'ignored'.
