A story when i was asked by a FC cricketer not to fret over autographs. Here it goes:
During 90s, as a cricket fan growing up in Bhilai, we weren't blessed enough to watch a lot of live games in stadiums. Bhilai and Rajnandgaon(40-50 kms from Bhilai) hosted few Ranji games. 1/n https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1252439421510488066

Even these Ranji games were few and far between. In 99, Rajnandgaon got the chance to host a game between MP and Haryana. My father and Rajesh Chauhan were pretty tight so he asked me if i would be interested to watch the game and i readily agreed. 2/n

A day before the game, i bought myself an autograph book. Each day, he would pick me from my home at 6 AM and drive to the stadium. Going with him meant that i got the best seat i.e the MP dressing room with a chance to interact with all players. 3/n

For the initial 2 days, i couldn't gather the courage to ask for autographs. MP had some stellar cricketers( C Pandit, JP Yadav, Amey Khurasia, Bundela). Based on my experience of the 2 days, i realized that Sanjay Pandey, MP fast bowler is the most approachable guy. 4/n

TBH, he was the 12th man so we used to watch together the entire day's play. On 3rd day, i took out my book and asked for his autograph. He gave the autograph but said "Tum Rajesh sir ke saath aaye ho aur autograph maang rahe ho. Game enjoy karo yaar." 5/n

The fascination of autographs was over for me that day. So yeah. That's my only autograph. Sanjay Pandey. (End of Thread)