Dhoni, who was employed with the Indian Railways’ south-eastern wing as a ticket collector with the Kharagpur division, had put in his papers way back in 2004. Although he soon joined Air India, former employers SER hadn’t yet given him the due clearance, a fact that is being seen by many as a violation of rules and regulations.

RN Malhotra, senior public relations officer of SER, however, defended Dhoni’s move. “Dhoni’s case is a special one, you can’t compare him to other people. Dhoni is a celebrity today. Someone of his stature is also entitled to change decisions like this. It happens everywhere,” said Malhotra, speaking to The Indian Express.

Chief personnel officer of SER, Arvind Kumar refused to comment on the matter when approached by this paper.

Some SER employees from the Kharagpur division tols this daily that had the top brass known that Dhoni would some day become a “cricket superstar”, then they would definitely have treated the Jharkhand player better, probably even promoting him to the post of Train Ticket Examiner.

Interestingly, even as Dhoni’s resignation process from the Indian Railways took four painstaking years, another top sportsperson — ace archer Dola Banerjee — has been kept waiting by employers Eastern Railway (ER) for a long time for a promotion that is long overdue now. The World Cup gold medalist currently holds the post of junior clerk in the Divisional Railway Manager’s (DRM) office in Howrah. Asked about the delay in sanctioning the pending promotion, chief public relations officer of ER, Deepak Jha, assured that Dola’s case is already in the process of being worked out and the Railway Board has taken it up.

“Our general manager NK Goel is in touch with Railway Board chairman KC Jena on this matter. We hope that she (Dola) will soon be seen in a better post in office,” Jha said, adding: “However, I am not in a position to say for sure whether she will be a senior clerk or officer.”

The 27-year-old archer had claimed the Gold in the Meteksan Archery World Cup in Dover, England, last August. She went on to be crowned the world champion in the Dubai leg of the World Cup in November.

Now that the Bengal archer is on a career high, sponsors are making a beeline, with electronics giant Samsung coming up with a Rs 3.9 lakh sponsorship deal for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Dola, however, reckons that the focus shoueln’t be on the sudden spurt in sponsorships. “For me, money isn’t the main factor. I feel proud to be the trend-setter in Indian archery, which is now beginning to attract sponsors,” she said.