Fan dies, Dhoni's house attacked as India lose to B'desh

New Delhi, Mar 18 (UNI) A fan died of heart-attack in Gujarat while enraged cricket lovers vandalised Mahendra Singh Dhoni's house in Ranchi as India's defeat to unfancied Bangladesh in the World Cup sparked off burning of player's effigies and angry demonstrations all over the country.

In Jamnagar, a cricket fan died of a cardiac-arrest after watching Men-in-Blue surrendering to Bangladesh.

Vinubhai Kotecha of Jamrawal Taluka, 20 km from Jamnagar, suddenly had a heart attack after the match yesterday and died before medical help could reach him, family members said.

In Ranchi, the defeat sparked strong reactions. Damage was reported when around 50 youths assembled and attacked the construction site of the new house of dashing India stumper Dhoni.

They also burnt the effigy of the player who was out for a duck in yesterday's match. Teammates and coach Greg Chappell were not spared either as the fans demanded the squad return from the Caribbean.

Security cover was provided to Dhoni's parents after the incident.

In Bangalore, vigilance was also stepped up at the residences of Indian captain Rahul Dravid, ace leggie Anil Kumble and opener Robin Uthappa, following the team's lacklustre performance.

Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid faced the ire of crowd in Kolkata where fans took out procession before buring their effigies. They wanted the coach and the captain to be sacked immediately while in Jamshedpur, the fans went a step ahead and demanded Sourav Ganguly to be reinstated as India captain.

However, it was beleaguered Virender Sehwag who was in the eye of the storm. The Delhi opener, suffering from a prolonged form slump, drew strongest of the reactions from the fans across the country.

In Kanpur, while the aggressive in the crowd burnt his posters, others simply questioned the player's utility in the squad. Similar scences were re-enacted in Varanasi, Bhopal and Jaipur.

In Jalandhar, fans turned up in large numbers to hold a demonstration and burn posters of the players today.

Slogans were raised against Sehwag, Dravid, Harbhajan Singh and other members of the Indian squad and even cricket administrators were not spared curses.

Meanwhile, Sehwag found a voice of support in his mother Krishna, who urged fans to keep their faith in her son.

UNI