Pranav Dhanawade, the boy famed for his 1000-run innings, arrested in Mumbai

Mumbai teenager Pranav Dhanawade, who had scripted history earlier this year with his 1009-run unbeaten knock which made him a household name across the country, was arrested in the city on Saturday.

After a tweet from the Associate Editor of ABP news, it has come to light that the wonder kid Dhanawade was arrested by the Mumbai Police for staging a protest on the issue of his playground being converted into a helipad. The landing strip for helicopters was being built in order to facilitate BJP minister Prakash Javadekar’s visit to the city.

Pranav Dhanawade, boy who scored 1000 runs in school cricket arrested for staging protest against converting his ground into helipad

— G. S. Vivek (@GSV1980) December 17, 2016

The ground in question is Kalyan’s Subhash Maidan wherein the helipad was being constructed right over the crease, much to the dismay of local players like Dhanawade. Before staging the protest, Pranav also requested the authorities to shift the location of the helipad to a neighbouring area, where it would not affect their playing space.

But his plea fell on deaf years, and subsequently the young player decided to show his dissent. But he was not only beaten up by the local police for doing so, but also taken into custody. Along with Pranav, his parents were also arrested for coming out in support over the issue.

Back in January, playing for KC Gandhi Higher Secondary School, Dhanawade reached the gigantic score of 1009 in just 327 deliveries with a jaw-dropping strike rate of 308.56 in the game against Arya Gurukul in the Bhandari Cup inter-school tournament, organised by the Mumbai Cricket Association. In the process, he also broke a 116-year old record in the sport of cricket for the highest individual score. As a reward for his record-breaking feat, the MCA had felicitated him with a scholarship of Rs 10,000 per month for the next five years.

In his two previous innings prior to the historic score, Dhanawade had been dismissed in the 80s, something he was particularly sore about since his coach Mubin Shaikh had told him that he needed to make a really massive score to break into the Mumbai U-16 team. But controversy surrounded his non-selection in the Under-16 squad for the West Zone as well. The hype was around the fact that Arjun Tendulkar – son of cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar – was selected for the team supposedly over the 1000-run hero, Dhanawade.

There was a lot of furore across social networking platforms, especially Twitter, over why Sachin Tendulkar's son had made it instead of an auto driver's son who seemingly deserved it more.