The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has announced to auction the seats at the historic Wankhede Stadium where the ball landed after former India captain MS Dhoni struck the ODI World Cup winning six against Sri Lanka in 2011.
Earlier in April this year, the MCA had invited Dhoni to inaugurate a victory memorial built at the site of that historic six for which five chairs were removed from the pavilion.
The MCA said that the fund collected through the auction will serve as scholarships to the emerging players.
“To eternalize the glory of this moment, the two seats where the ball landed at the Wankhede Stadium after MS Dhoni struck the ICC World Cup 2011 winning six will be auctioned by the MCA,” the cricket association said on X (formerly Twitter).
“The funds collected from this auction will be utilised to provide scholarships to emerging players,” it added.
Notably in 2011, India had become the only team to win the ODI World Cup at home and Dhoni became the second captain from the country after Kapil Dev to win the prestigious title.
Although the historic moment is considered to be one of the most memorable happening in Indian cricket history but for Dhoni, the winning six wasn’t the best moment for him as he revealed during a conversation with his former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) teammate Michael Hussey.
“The best feeling was 15-20 minutes (before the winning moment). We didn’t need a lot of runs, the partnership was well-placed, there was a lot of dew. And the stadium started to sing Vande Mataram. That atmosphere I feel is very difficult to recreate – maybe in this (2023) World Cup, there is a similar scenario, once the stadium, the fans start contributing. You know, it’s a very difficult (atmosphere) one to replicate. But it can only be replicated if the occasion is similar to that (in 2011) and there are like 40, 50 or 60,000 people who are singing,” Dhoni had said earlier this year.