It was a prank that took even the colourful Mohammed Kaif by surprise. It also shredded the stiff, stuffy mask that has been Indian cricket’s favourite PR tool over the years — a rare moment of humour in whites, some Jharkhand, some UP.The evening after Kaif hit his first Test hundred, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, already the favourite of West Indian fans, quietly slipped into the back row of the media briefing hall, and started tapping his chest and raising his hands. Obviously, he had a question to ask.Kaif had spotted him by now and finally Imran Khan, the media officer here, called out aloud: “Dhoni.” “Kaun Dhoni?” asked Kaif with a grin. Dhoni’s question? “Kya lagta hai, kaise celebrate karenge aap apne century ko?”Caught on the wrong foot for a brief second, the cameras catching every move, Kaif came up with this face-saver: “Celebrate? Test match jeet jaaye to celebrate karenge. Bahut time hai abhi.”West Indies battling to save the second Test, even the serious Colin Croft was laughing out aloud by now. And Dhoni retorted with this announcement before strutting back to the adjoining Team India dressing room: “Ok, right now we will go to the beach.”Kaif did score some points of his own, too. Congratulated by Croft, who’s covering the series for BBC, Kaif said, “Luckily, I wasn’t facing you. Very lucky.” Croft replied, “Oh, you will have to go a long way back for that, you weren’t born then.”Then, before outlining his “on-off” struggle in Test cricket, Kaif had a special word for that legendary cricket character so unique to this part of the world — the West Indies cricket fan. “Coming here and that getting that century is a great feeling. It’s very special. The people here are very passionate about this game and love watching Indian players. We got the support during the one-day matches and Tests, and that atmosphere has been fantastic,” he said.
