PTI 

Abu Dhabi, Apr 18: For Kerala speedster S Sreesanth, UAE is the second home as a large number of Malayalees reside in that country. The gritty seamer will definitely not be short on support on the field since he enjoys a unique star status here.

In fact, yesterday Sreesanth took time out to attend a dinner hosted by Ashrayam -- a social organisation being run by the people from his home town of Kothamangalam in Kerala.

His speech on his rise in cricketdom was listened in awe by the audience, many of whom were his relatives and former neighours.

Asked how he felt playing alongside his childhood idol Sachin Tendulkar, Sreesanth said, "it is nothing less than a dream come true." "I still remember myself as a young boy filling up contest coupons of a health drink hoping to be the lucky winner who would get a chance to spend some time with Sachin," he said.

He also fondly reminisced how he used got flak from his father for buying a lot of pet jars of that particular brand of health drink in his bid to meet Sachin.

"My dad used to scold me for buying 3-4 bottles of the health drink in a month," he said.