Former cricketer and Mont Blanc's man in India Doshi spins a 高級な success story

By Ananda Majumdar

Published: 00:48 BST, 3 November 2013 | Updated: 02:38 BST, 3 November 2013

Dilip Doshi, former cricketer and Mont Blanc's man in India, 発表するs with a touch of pride that he is a foodie. At the restaurant of the 高級な hotel where Mont Blanc has a boutique, he proceeds to 証明する the point with aplomb.

He calls the chef, orders a tall glass of carrot and beet root juice and tells him how to cook a meal of dal, pur?ed spinach and cauliflower to be served with brown rice - not "browned rice" he says, just to make sure the chef knows the lunch has to be 正確に／まさに as he has ordered.

Success: Former Indian cricketer Dilip Doshi, is now a successful 実業家

All without onion or garlic which he says make the dish a tad 激しい. He seems to enjoy the chef's discomfiture at having to go off the menu and find the 成分s for a vegan meal.

You could say Doshi knows what he wants. To bring a 高級な brand like Mont Blanc to India was one - he now has 16 boutiques in India and can be credited with 開始 up the Indian market for 高級な brands.

And the other 存在 his successful search for the music 禁止（する）d that could, によれば him, produce the perfect sound. First to the music. Doshi is an unabashed fan of the Rolling 石／投石するs and a friend of Mick Jagger.

In his growing up years, Elvis Presley was the 激怒（する）. He loved the sound of 'Jailhouse 激しく揺する' and after the 'King' died he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to hear someone who could produce a unique sound.

Jagger's friend

The Beatles made "甘い and nice music" but it wasn't what he was looking for. Then one day he heard 'It's all over now' on BBC's Metro 禁止（する）d and （機の）カム to know they were Britain's newest 攻撃する，衝突する 製造者s.

He met Jagger, a cricket 熱中している人, at Trentbridge during a match and since then they have been friends.

"From Tokyo to LA" as he puts it, he has …に出席するd 242 live shows of the 石／投石するs. And, here is the good part - he 計画（する）s to bring them to India next year, perhaps in March.

"Mick has the ability to 表明する a song 肉体的に. The 石／投石するs are all 70 and more and they have the energy and 解雇する／砲火／射撃 which 20 year olds can't match. They just get better and better," he says.

After 存在 dropped from the 国家の team in 1983, over which there is still some ぐずぐず残る bitterness, he decided that the 高級な 商売／仕事 was what he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be in.

It was kindled by his first Mont Blanc pen, gifted by his father who had bought it from the factory in Germany.

In 1990 Doshi met the company's 大統領，／社長 Norbert Platt and 副／悪徳行為-大統領，／社長 Wolffe Heinrichsdorff on bringing Mont Blanc to India.

They warmed に向かって him. Except, there was a hitch. 高級な was still a bad word in India and the 輸入する of some of these goods was banned at the time.

So, he sought Mont Blanc's support when he met then 商業 長官 Tejendra Khanna in 1993. Platt went with him.

Finally, the 政府 gave the green light for the 輸入する of what Doshi 述べるs as a "遺産 製品".

Hard work

"There is a plethora of 高級な brands in India now, 特に over the last 10 years. We have been here for about 20 years," he says.

It was the "血 and sweat" over the years that got him to open the 16 Mont Blanc boutiques, after the first one opened at Delhi's Maurya Hotel.

Doshi says he doesn't have any 選択 but to run the boutiques from hotels. There are no high streets in India, something clean where people can walk or sit and have coffee.

So he had to 選ぶ hotels.

"A 高級な 製品 has to be sold in a luxurious 環境," he says. His success in the 高級な 商売／仕事 perhaps has to do something with the temperament of a cricketer.

In both you have to be 競争の激しい and 焦点（を合わせる）d, he 観察するs. As he leaves the restaurant, he realises he has come away with the napkin. He rolls it into a ball, turns around and sends it spinning into the 手渡すs of the waiter. That left arm still looks good and strong. You no longer wonder how a man who began his 実験（する） career at the age of 32 still ended up with 100 実験（する） wickets in an age when より小数の international matches were 存在 played.

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