Cannes 2013: Raahil's blog: MSD 1, Thierry Henry 0

Walking through the streets of Cannes looking for scooters and cycles on hire, we found an affable French gentleman with a famous name, Thierry Henry. While we entered Elite Scooter Rental in the hope of getting a two-wheeler on rent, we got a lot more.

After settling on the bikes, we started talking to Thierry. The moment he got to know we are Indians, he associated us with MSD (that’s how he referred to Dhoni).

Surprised, we asked him if he follows cricket. He doesn't. Even more surprised, we then asked him how he knew of Dhoni.

His son, Florian Marino had raced for MSD’s racing team, Kawasaki – MSD RN Team India last year. He went on to explain Florian's exit from the team at the end of last year, only to be called on for his services again this year, following a few good results.

MotoGP is big in Italy, France and other non-cricket playing countries in Europe. The team acquisition by the Indian captain seems to be a step in the right direction for ‘Brand MSD’.

While awaiting our contract to be printed we continued chatting with Thierry.

We then asked him about his namesake, Thierry Henry (French footballer).

He nodded but voiced disapproval.

“He’s put us in shame. He should never have done that (referring to the handball incident against Ireland in the World Cup qualifiers). I wasn't the biggest fan of football anyway, but after that incident, I've totally stopped watching football,” said Thierry.

MSD 1 Thierry Henry 0 - that’s the feeling we took from there, with the bikes.

Also read:

Cannes 2013: Gokul's blog: 'Where are the Indians?'

Cannes 2013: Gokul's blog: Thought-provoking questions, disturbing perceptions, a lot of sales pitches - and some magic