Dogs are cricketers’ best friends
IT HAS BECOME FASHIONABLE FOR CRICKETERS, LIKE BOLLYWOOD ACTORS, TO OWN AT LEAST ONE DOG
Most players of the current Indian cricket team have at least one pet pooch, who is treated as a family member. (We’d recently carried a story on former player and India Team coach Ravi Shastri missing his four-legged friends back home.)
Team India Captain Virat Kohli had a beagle, Bruno, for 11 years, and when the pooch passed away last year,
Kohli and his wife had expressed their sorrow in an Instagram tribute to Bruno.
Rohit Sharma is a dog dad, too. And according to Rohit
Sharma’s father, Gurunath Sharma, Rohit’s wife Ritika is also a dog lover. “Ritika’s parents have a dog called Magic. Whenever Ritika and Rohit visit her parents’ home in Colaba, Mumbai, the dog welcomes them lovingly. Even Rohit’s daughter loves to play with Magic,” said the father. While at his in-laws house, Rohit, who’s currently on an England tour now and joined by his wife, is usually found chilling and playing with the pup. Former Indian player Yuvraj Singh also joins the list of cricketers who are dog parents. He recently shared a picture of his dog on his Instagram and captioned his post as, “It’s puppy time! Always good to hang out with my pup boy.” India’s Little Master Sachin Tendulkar is often said to have brought his St. Bernard to Manali for holidays, while former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh has shared on social media the photo of his daughter playing with dogs.
Another cricketer dog lover is Suresh Raina, who had a dog called Jacky. “Jacky stayed with us for about six months and we gifted it to one of our relatives,” Suresh Raina’s brother, Dinesh tells us.
Former India captain MS Dhoni’s love for pets has been wellknown. He even has a number of dogs at his farm house in Ranchi and the dogs have been companions to Dhoni and Sakshi’s daughter Ziva.