IANS
Patna, Jan 29: These days much of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi's happiness lies in seeing their eldest son Tejasvi Yadav’s cricketing talent bloom.
The upbeat couple sees Tejasvi, an under-17 Delhi team player, as a "Mahendra Singh Dhoni" in the making.
“Tejasvi has a natural talent and is showing signs of rising up the ladder. We are sure that one day he will play like Dhoni,” Lalu Prasad said yesterday.
In fact, the lanky Tejasvi also likes to grow his hair long like Dhoni.
Like any father, Lalu Prasad too hopes that Tejasvi, 16, will make a name for himself. And his confidence in Tejasvi is not without reason. Only a few days ago, Tejasvi’s blazing cricket knocks in Kolkata led the Delhi team to establish a five-wicket win over Mumbai and helped clinch the Vijay Merchant Trophy for under-17 cricket at the university level.
“My son has talent, he led Delhi to victory,” Lalu said.
Last year Tejasvi, who has captained the under-15 side of the Delhi team, made a name when his team won the Polly Umrigar Trophy for the first time.
Former chief minister Rabri Devi, sitting next to Lalu Prasad in the sprawling 1 Anne Marg residence, recalled that it was in that bungalow that Tejasvi learnt the rudiments of the game.
“It was here that he started playing cricket with his friends,” she said, pointing to a nearby cricket pitch specially made for him.
Neither indicates when they will vacate the bungalow even though Rabri Devi ceased to be chief minister after the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) lost the October-November assembly elections.
Rabri Devi believes her son will for India some day.
Lalu Prasad loves to tell everyone that Tejasvi defeated Akshay — the son of current Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi — in a national-level cricket tournament of public schools.
Last year, during campaigning for the assembly elections in Raghopur from where Rabri Devi was contesting, he introduced Tejasvi to the crowds by saying, “Yeh mera beta hai. Abhi yeh cricket mein Modi ke bete ko hara kar aaya hai. (This is my son, he has just defeated Modi's son in cricket).”
Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi have nine children, including two sons.