Revealed: What Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and others gifted Ashish Nehra on his birthday

Ashish Nehra, the man who made the grandest of comebacks to Team India earlier this year, celebrated his 37th birthday on Friday. The lanky, wiry pacer, whose career has been a roller coaster ride, decided to mark his birthday with a celebration. Though he has refrained from throwing such parties in the past, but this year has been special, and hence he decided to throw a bash. Parties are incomplete without guests and presents and this one was no different. And even as the writer was not on the list of invitees, he decided to gate-crash the party only for all you guys who are reading this piece. Here, he brings to you all the details from the celebration, which saw the attendance of a host of personalities from different walks of life. So find out who all made it to the gala event and what did they gift Nehra.

1.  Sachin Tendulkar: Tendulkar made it to the bash despite his busy schedule. A source close to him told the writer that the master doesn’t miss such occasions, even if they come at the price of missing the parliament sessions. Anyways, Tendulkar, as we know, played cricket for 24-long years and retired at the age of 40. By that time, some people had already started calling him the ‘grand-old man of Indian cricket’. He, apparently, never liked the moniker and when the opportune moment came, gifted it to Nehra, who, at 37, is the oldest active Indian cricketer. Whether Nehra liked it or not, could not be ascertained.

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2.  Virender Sehwag: Sehwag, who keeps praising his friend ‘Nehraji’ with ‘old is gold’ tweets, was also present for the bash. Even though the ‘Nawab of Nazafgarh’ likes most things about Nehra, what irks him is the fact that he still has to pick the pacer from his place every time they meet in Delhi. Through their journey from Vespa to Audi, Sehwag has always picked Nehra up from his residence but Arvind Kejriwal’s odd-even rule has ensured he can’t pick his friend on the even days (all his vehicles are numbered on his famous scores 119, 219, 319, 309 and end with 9). So, Sehwag decided to gift Nehra Ji an INR 1 Cr Audi car (not the one Ravindra Jadeja got from his in-laws) with a number that ended with 6 (most no. Of wickets Nehra took in a single ODI).

3.  Virat Kohli: India’s Test captain and world’s best batsman across formats (only few may differ), Kohli too was seen dancing with Chris Gayle at the bash. The cricketer, who once received a prize at the hands of Nehra when he was a child, shares a special bond with Nehra Ji. He made a stunning revelation at the party that Nehra is the fountainhead of his inspiration behind abusing at the ground. He recollected an incident from his childhood saying how he was impressed by Nehra when he abused MS Dhoni after he dropped a catch of Nehra’s bowling. The master of chase gifted Nehra Ji an updated, latest edition of slang lexicon, which reportedly was not accepted by Nehra Ji as Dhoni was around at that time.

4.  Mark Zuckerberg: Zuckerberg too was present at the bash and was in fact on a mission. He had heard of a man in India who despite being so popular, was not on social media. So he invited himself to the party and gifted Nehra a lifelong free subscription of WhatsApp and Facebook. Nehra, however, turned the offer down. Tim Cook too was seen at the function and the Apple top boss gifted Nehra a yet-to-be-launched iphone 7. More than happy with his ‘Nokia’, Nehra turned down this offer, sorry gift, as well.

5.  Baba Ramdev: Baba Ramdev gifted the pacer a book on ‘Yoga’, which Nehra was happy to receive considering its utility on managing his injury-ravaged career. However, what turned Nehra off was another gift from Ramdev — Patanjali Dant Kanti toothpaste. The baba was hoping to help the birthday boy get his teeth in order with that gift, but had to run for his life after a furious Nehra came running after, threatening to bite him. Another similar case was noticed when Navjot Singh Sidhu and Rameez Raja gifted him books on commentary skills.

6.  Shah Rukh Khan: The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) owner was also present at the bash and apparently gifted Nehra a huge supply of ‘Fair and Handsome’. Sources close to King Khan said he was being generous as he had heard Nehra say in the past that the selectors perhaps did not like his face. But now that Nehra is a member of Team India, he politely turned down the gift. It is yet not confirmed whether Shahrukh was being kind or was actually endorsing the product.

7.  MS Dhoni: Well, they say there is no bigger gift than forgiveness. Dhoni once again brought this adage true by gifting Nehra his forgiveness. India’s limited-overs skipper was playing his maiden ODI series for India when his senior Nehra had abused him for dropping a catch. But the tables have turned and how! It was Dhoni who played Nehra regularly for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL and got him back in Team India. This was one gift Nehra accepted gleefully and the two of them were seen embracing each other.

Indeed there is nothing bigger than forgiveness, and the writer hopes to be forgiven for writing this piece.

Happy Birthday Nehra Ji!

Please note this is a humour article — work of pure fiction.

(A self-confessed cricket freak, Chinmay Jawalekar is a senior writer with CricLife and CricketCountry. When not writing or following cricket, he loves to read, eat and sleep. He can be followed here @CricfreakTweets)