'Dawood entered Indian dressing room'

NEW DELHI: Former skipper Dilip Vengsarkar today made a startling revelation about underworld don Dawood Ibrahim entering the Indian team dressing room and offering the players cars if they beat Pakistan in the final of the Sharjah tournament in 1986.

Vengsarkar disclosed that Dawood entered the team's dressing room and was introduced by the famous actor Mehmood as a businessman. However, Dawood was asked by the then India's captain Kapil Dev to get out of the dressing room.

"Dawood offered a car to each player of the team if they beat Pakistan in the match that was to be played the next day," Vengsarkar said at a function in Jalgaon.

"Dawood had said: 'If you guys win the tournament, I will give all of you a Toyota car each. The offer was rejected by the team," Vengsarkar.

"Yes, I remember a gentleman walking into our dressing room in a game in Sharjah and wanting to talk to the players," Kapil Dev told India Today.

Former BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele had also mentioned the incident in his book, 'I was There -- Memoirs of a Cricket Administrator'.

The series is most remembered for the last-ball six by Javed Miandad off Chetan Sharma in the final that helped Pakistan win their first Sharjah trophy.

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Shweta Pandey

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