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MS Dhoni: A street gentleman, a heroic butcher and a cricketer who never was!
“Bhaiyaji score bata denge?” Mahendra Singh Dhoni asked wading through a sea of people who had crowded near the radio at Khargpur Railway station in Uttar Pradesh.
“Bhaiyaji score bata denge?” Mahendra Singh Dhoni asked wading through a sea of people who had crowded near the radio at Khargpur Railway station in West Bengal. Working as a ticket checker with the Indian Railways, in those days, Dhoni was pushed by a man. The victim was a little taken aback then, but he isn’t out for revenge now.
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On July 7, 2015, Dhoni will be turning 34. The world has changed for him since then, while not much remains documented about the man who pushed him and questioned, “score jaankar kya kar lega? World Cup leke aayega tu?”. Surely, he isn’t as famous now.
The journey of Dhoni can be narrated in many ways. In fact, you can read it in a way that best suits you. He could be the man whose looks transformed from voguish long locks to cropped salt-and-pepper hair. He could be the man who made millions of kids in the small towns dream big. He could be the man who made parents and teachers encourage sports in Ranchi. He could be the man without whom India wouldn’t have won the World T20 in 2007 or the ICC World Cup 2011. If India hadn’t won the former, possibly the Indian Premier League (IPL) wouldn’t have come into existence. He could be the man who made it difficult for wicketkeepers to play for India. He could be anyone, but a cricketer.
Naturally, Dhoni isn’t a cricketer. Certainly not, if the English had the rights to define what ‘cricket’ was or is. He doesn’t have the technique or grace in his game which could be enjoyed by a viewer — he doesn’t bat like the manuals instruct, nor does he keep wickets like coaches would teach. But he has made up for it, enroute guiding India to numerous wins with common sense, sharp instincts and tremendous hard work.
He was a goalkeeper for his school when the cricket coach drafted him into the cricket side to fill up for the injured wicketkeeper. What transpired from thereon was a story of struggle, dedication, laurels, adulation and greatness –scripting a romantic tale. For a man who had a fancy for hairstyles and bikes, he preferred to enjoy his life sans drama.
He wasn’t a boy wonder. He could hit big sixes in the local tennis-ball competitions in Ranchi, which was his greatest claim to fame for a long time. He wasn’t among the best players even in his school team. For those who have played with him in his early days, are left baffled by his meteoric rise.
He made his debut just a few months before the tennis elbow started to trouble Sachin Tendulkar and threatened to bring an abrupt end to his career. As it turned out, Dhoni and Tendulkar played their last Test at home together. In a short span of time, Dhoni had created enough of an impact.
He defied conventions. He didn’t take hands back while collecting the ball behind the stumps. Instead, he went ahead and reduced the time of effecting stumping by crucial milliseconds, making him arguably the quickest stumper in the game. Wriddhiman Saha, a technically correct wicketkeeper, who has since taken over the duties following his retirement from Test cricket, is having a hard time matching upto his speed.
As it stands today, Dhoni is behind just three legendary names in having most international dismissals to his name. He may not have been the most gifted or effective wicketkeeper. But he did the best he could.
Even with the bat, Adam Gilchrist might be seen as a revolutionary wicketkeeper-batsman, but as records stand today, Dhoni has turned out to be a better limited-overs batsman than the legendary Australian. He changed his game from being renowned for big-hitting, to becoming a street smart batsman.
He caresses the ball through gaps, puts pressure on the fielder, steals a run or two when there is none and butchers the ball when the moment comes. His ability to soak in pressure and put his skills to use has made him one of the finest chasers in limited-overs cricket -— out of the 82 games India have won chasing with Dhoni in the side, he was unbeaten in 38 of them with a mind-boggling average of 109.19.
Dhoni isn’t a Tendulkar, but it is safe to say that Indian cricket would’ve been different without him. Alongside Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Sourav Ganguly, he is arguably India’s greatest captain ever. Overall, he is fourth on the list of most One-Day International (ODI) wins, sixth on the list of most Test wins as captain and top of the charts in T20 Internationals. His Test record as captain away from home remains the only blemish.
For a rather clean career, he stirred up a bit of controversy when he chose to remain silent on the IPL spot-fixing scandal or when he threatened to quit captaincy when India lost their an ODI series to Bangladesh.
But beyond all that is cricket, Dhoni continues to remain a man who chooses to speak less, much to the dislike of media. His family has shifted residence to a bigger house, but in the same Shyamali colony. Now a husband and a father, Dhoni is living his army dream after accepting the rank of honorary lieutenant colonel in the Parachute Regiment.
He could be anyone. Dhoni the batsman, Dhoni the wicketkeeper, Dhoni the captain, Dhoni the inspiration or simply, Dhoni the icon – you decide what narration you wish to read. Dhoni the cricketer encompasses it all. But to begin with, Dhoni was never really a cricketer.
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