Gossner College principal Sidharth Kumar Ecka shows Dhoni’s admission form. Picture by Manik Bose

Ranchi, March 14: The alma mater has finally staked claim to its prized student, Team India ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

He is officially still a pupil of Gossner College, a minority-affiliated institution under Ranchi University.

Governed by Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church, the college still has the skipper registered as a BCom (honours in accountancy) Part-I student for the 1999-2002 batch.

“Technically, he is still our student as he is yet to take a college-leaving certificate (CLC) or a transfer certificate from our institution. We admit that we never called Dhoni to complete his studies from our institution as we usually do with others. But we will now invite the ace cricketer to complete his studies from here,” said a concerned Sidharth Kumar Ecka, the Gossner principal.

With Dhoni having expressed his wish to study in the reputed St Xavier’s College, another minority institution enjoying autonomy, Gossner authorities have decided to try and ensure that he completed his degree from their college.

“Our ex-student Chanchal Bhattacharya, a cricket coach based in Ranchi, introduced Dhoni to our college. Moreover, our physical training instructor Anmol Khalko shares a good rapport with him. We will approach Dhoni,” a Gossner official said.

Original copies of Dhoni’s school-leaving certificate and character certificate issued by DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Shyamali, are still in possession of Gossner College.

The college, however, has no plans of returning them to Dhoni if he insists on pursuing BCom from St Xavier’s College. “First we will try to invite Dhoni to be our student. But if he turns down our request, as per college norms, we will give him a photocopy of his certificates along with a CLC,” said Ecka.

Khalko said that Dhoni was the college cricket team captain during his short stint.