Team India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni did not miss an opportunity to visit the city police headquarters at Lalbazar on November 19. Dhoni has had a professed admiration for the uniformed force. Only early this month, the army made him an honorary lieutenant colonel. Kolkata Police had him over for lunch on Friday.

With the series victory over theWest Indiesin his pocket, a relaxed Dhoni made sure that he visited his “old friends” at the police headquarters. Earlier in February 2010, his love for old motorbikes led Dhoni to the city police headquarters at Lalbazar. Dhoni knew that a number of old motorbikes are lying in Lalbazar and he used the opportunity of being in the city for the second Test againstSouth Africato visit the police headquarters.

The highlight of his first trip to the police headquarters last February was riding a Yamaha RD-350, a lightweight motorbike from the Seventies that was parked inside Lalbazar. Labazar has had two such bikes. A bonding grew instantly.

After a wholesome lunch, Mahi showered a fulsome praise on the city police, particularly traffic cops for keeping Kolkata streets congestion-free. “He told us that he found the city’s traffic better managed than most other cities. Mahi emphasized that this has been quite an old perception of his about the city. He had this feeling even before he became a national cricketer, when he would often visit the city,” a senior officer said.

But this second visit was a longer one with MSD, whose wife Sakshi is a Kolkata girl. He spent over two hours with the cops. Dressed in half sleeves paired with jeans, Mahi entered Lalbazar at 1.10 pm. His first stop was commissioner R.K. Pachnanda’s office on the first floor of the main building, where the entire police top brass was waiting for him.

He was next taken to the briefing room, where the cops gifted him a memento embellished with the flags of various departments of Kolkata police. “We felicitated him on behalf of Kolkata police for leading the World Cup-winning team,” said Jawed Shamim, joint commissioner of police (headquarters).

Lunch followed the felicitation. “We had arranged for everything from Indian vegetarian dishes to continental and Chinese. Dhoni chose the Chinese,” the officer said. Dhoni then delighted the cops with stories about cricket. “He spoke very highly of his teammates. He was all praise for Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh,” said an officer who calls himself a “big fan” of the skipper. Police officers found him very humble and friendly.