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#5 When a female fan refused to leave Rahul Dravid’s home
It is no secret that former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid enjoyed an immense following among female fans during his playing days. However, the nice guy of Indian cricket found himself in a spot once when a woman admirer of his came to visit him, but refused to leave his home.
Narrating details of the funny incident during an episode of the show ‘What the Duck’ in 2016, Dravid revealed:
“I had just come from a tour and I was sleeping in the afternoon. When I woke up, my parents told me to go and meet this fan who had come all the way from Hyderabad. She was waiting there for an hour and a half. At first, I thought it would be a simple taking autograph or photograph thing.”
“She said, ‘no I am not going to leave. I have left my home and come. I will stay here only’ and I was taken aback. It ended quite well but it was a wake-up call for my parents that you don’t let anyone in just like that,” Dravid recalled.
#6 Fan falls at Sourav Ganguly’s feet
Current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had passionate fans rooting for him during his playing days. Ganguly lovers, in fact, worshipped him.
Proof was on display when an ardent fan of the former Indian cricketer ran onto the field to touch Ganguly's feet during an IPL encounter between Deccan Chargers and Pune Warriors in Hyderabad in April 2011.
In the picture, the young fan is seen holding Ganguly’s feet with the batsman and the umpire trying to stop him. Another former Indian cricketer (not in pic), Yuvraj Singh, is at the other end, watching on in amazement.
#7 When a 93-year-old fan met Virender Sehwag in 2018
Virender Sehwag was a maverick batsman but he had a fan following cutting across age barriers. During IPL 2018, the former Indian cricketer was the mentor and head of cricket operations of Punjab Kings (formerly Kings XI Punjab). A 93-year-old well-wisher from Patiala came to meet Sehwag in Chandigarh that season.
Sehwag shared a picture of his elderly fan on social media and wrote:
"Felt extremely touched on meeting Om Prakash ji, who is 93 years old and came from Patiala to meet me in Chandigarh and expressed his love for me. Dada ko Pranam."
Punjab Kings also uploaded photos of Sehwag hugging and touching the feet of the senior citizen.
#8 When a fan claimed to be Yuvraj Singh’s girlfriend
In what can be termed bizarre, a female fan of Yuvraj Singh named Huma Anjum created a quiz in 2015 on a famous web browser, through which she claimed that she was the former Indian cricketer’s girlfriend.
The quiz asked fans to guess Yuvraj Singh’s latest girlfriend - the options being Shardha Kapoor, Alia Bhat and Huma Anjum herself. The right answer was set as Huma.
When Yuvraj came to know of the same, he was shocked and tweeted:
“Just noticed something on the phone! Koi batayega yeh Huma kaun hai?
Huma posted a video and apologized to Yuvraj, claiming she was a crazy fan of the Indian cricketer.
#9 A long journey, an accident and help from Hardik Pandya
Team India all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s ardent fan from Coimbatore, Mugunthan, has tattooed the Indian cricketer’s name in 16 different languages. In September 2019, Mugunthan decided to travel 3000 kms by road, from Coimbatore to Dharamsala, to watch Pandya play in a T20I against South Africa.
Things, however, did not go according to play for Mugunthan as he met with an accident near Jabalpur. He was taken to a government hospital and later to a private one, where doctors advised a surgery.
After hearing the news, Pandya was moved and decided to foot the bill for his fan’s treatment. Mugunthan later returned to Coimbatore, as a bigger admirer of Pandya, after completing his surgery.
#10 Zaheer Khan proposed on live television
In the midst of an intense India-Pakistan encounter in 2005, a female fan of left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan grabbed the limelight when she was captured by the cameras holding a ‘Zaheer I love you’ placard.
For a few moments, the tension eased as the former Indian cricketer’s fan blew kisses to Zaheer, who was spotted sitting alongside Yuvraj in the dressing room. The mischievous Yuvraj coaxed Zaheer into responding to the female fan. The somewhat shy fast bowler reciprocated by blowing a kiss back to the lady, and the stadium went berserk.
Even Virender Sehwag, who was batting out in the middle, enjoyed the cute moment and was captured smiling at the ‘lovely’ exchange between Zaheer and his fan.
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