Nagpur, Nov. 23: It was party time in the Indian dressing room as players celebrated coach Gary Kirsten’s 43rd birthday after winning the Test series against New Zealand on Tuesday.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni however, wanted to keep the celebrations secret and did not reveal anything when he was asked at the post-match press conference about whether they are planning a party or not.
“That you have to guess. The person with a lot of cake on his head should be the birthday boy!” he chuckled.
It was later found out that the Indian players were involved in smattering each other’s faces with the birthday cake as Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh sprinted straight into the field to avoid having cream pasted all over their faces.
Incidentally, it was the under-pressure Suresh Raina who was after the Indian captain and Gambhir. Dhoni, incidentally, sat on the staircase of the dressing room for a long time in order to escape Raina's ‘eagle eye’ even as the UP player insisted that he “won’t do anything” to his captain.
The celebrations were understandable as Kirsten has been a popular amongst the Indian coaches in recent times.
A few weeks back, when reports about Cricket South Africa approaching him for the coach’s job after World Cup came in, some of the senior Indian players said that the BCCI should retain his services.