MS Dhoni begins his training for Indian Army’s parachute regiment

MS Dhoni begins his training for Indian Army’s parachute regiment in Bengaluru after opting not to travel with his team for West Indies tour

Veteran Indian wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni has commenced with his two-month training with the Indian Army’s Parachute regiment. Dhoni, joined a battalion with its headquarters in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

As per the news agency IANS, the sources in the know of things confirm that this decision to serve his regiment was well on cards for quite a while.

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“Just like Dhoni has been one of the greatest servants of Indian cricket, his love for the armed forces is also well known. This idea that he would go and spend time with his regiment was in the pipeline for a while but it took a backseat due to his cricketing commitments”, the source said.

“Dhoni wants to create youth awareness about armed forces”- Source

As per the sources, the 38-year-old wishes to create awareness about the armed forces amongst the youth. And this is the prime motive for his decision to serve the Army. Dhoni has time and again expressed his love for the Army and had even stated in the past that he would have been serving his Army had Cricket not happened to him.

“This will also help increase awareness among the youth about the armed forces and that is what Dhoni wants,” the source said.

It was a dream come true for MS Dhoni, when in the year 2011, the then Indian Cricket Team captain officially became honorary Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army (TA) when the army chief at that time Gen VK Singh pipped his rank on his shoulders.

The honorary commission was approved by the former President Pratibha Patil in recognition of his achievements in the game of Cricket.

In 2015, as a result of rigorous training, he became a qualified paratrooper after having completed five parachute training jumps from Indian Army aircrafts in the Agra training camp.

Earlier, the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman had made himself unavailable for the West Indies tour where India will be playing three T20Is, three ODIs and two Test matches beginning August 3.