The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Indian team chills out

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Saturday, Nov 10, 2007
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Indian team chills out

Chandigarh: A few members of the Indian cricket team including skipper M.S. Dhoni watched the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Om Shanti Om at a multiplex here on Friday, while Pakistani pacer Shoaib Akhtar visited an orphanage.

While a few players of the Indian team including Virender Sehwag left the city to be with their families on Deepavali eve, others like Dhoni, Robin Utthapa and Irfan Pathan went to a multiplex here in the afternoon to watch the movie.

Senior players Sachin Tendulkar, his wife Anjali, son Arjun and daughter Sara along with Sourav Ganguly and his wife and daughter also accompanied Dhoni and company.

Local lad Yuvraj Singh drove around the city in his yellow sports car, attracting the attention of his fans.

At the multiplex too, the Indian team was mobbed by fans who were pleasantly surprised to see their favourite cricketing heroes.

The team’s fielding coach Robin Singh went shopping.

Akhtar visits orphanage

Meanwhile, Pakistani team members have also plans to watch a movie. Earlier in the day, they remained locked in their hotel rooms.

However, Akhtar visited an orphanage in Chandigarh and spent some time with the special children there.

The orphanage takes care of 120 children, including mentally and physically challenged. The children sang a few songs for Akhtar, who played cricket with them with a tennis ball.

Interacting with mediapersons at the orphanage, Akhtar said he was touched at meeting the children.

He said it was a “big occasion” for him, almost equal to the happiness he gets when Pakistan wins.

“Charity is close to my heart. Even in Australia, I raised funds for a bone marrow bank and have been taking up the cancer cause as well,” he said. The teams are scheduled to leave Chandigarh for Lucknow by a chartered flight on Saturday. — PTI

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