|
Monday 18th July saw cricket legends past and present alongside Bollywood superstars come together for MS Dhoni’s East meets West charitable dinner at the Hilton on Park Lane to celebrate Indian cricket.
The event was managed by Essentially and sponsored by exclusive watch brand Jean-Mairet & Gillman and supported by the Aditya Birla Group, Citi, Lycamobile and ASK.
Guests were entertained by Britain’s Got Talent dance crew; Threebee followed by Q&A sessions with Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh and cricket legends Alec Stewart, Rahul Dravid and Brian Lara. The whole Indian team turned up to support their skipper including the ‘little master’ himself, Sachin Tendulkar.
The evenings charity auction, conducted by Jonny Gould saw MS Dhoni’s World Cup winning bat fetch £100k for his foundation Winning Ways – Today for Tomorrow. Other items included a one off commission by Britain’s young artist Sacha Jafri who created a piece exclusively for the event in celebration of Indian cricket, their World Cup win and the incredible career of Sachin Tendulkar. The piece raised an incredible £260k on the night. The money from the event will help continue the MS Dhoni foundations dedication to improving children’s accessibility to cricket by building a sports academy where children will be able to develop their talents across a whole range of disciplines. MS Dhoni invited Habitat for Humanity and in particular their IndiaBUILDS initiative to be a second beneficiary of the event. Habitat for Humanity will help build the housing complex around the academy which will serve as accommodation for students and staff working at the academy.
The event was Essentially Athlete Management’s biggest fundraising dinner to date even eclipsing the efforts with Brian Lara in 2007 and Ricky Ponting in 2009.
|