The first thing which
comes to mind after hearing this name is Captain & he is from Ranchi a city
in Jharkhand. Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar as an independent state in
2000, not very developed & not in
prominence at that time, ( when Dhoni made his debut in Dec 2004) struggling to get its foothold on the
geographical map of India as Capital of Jharkhand. Indian cricket per se was
largely dominated by the bigger towns like Mumbai, (at one point it was more
difficult to get into the Ranji Team of Mumbai than having earned the national
call) Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai etc. During 1952-1956 7 players from
Mumbai were part of Indian national team. During the 80s & 90s eight
cricketers made their debut for India. Just for the sake of repetition the
Tendulkars, Shastri's, Gavaskar's, Patils, Manjrekar's all were from Mumbai. In
2006 5 players from Mumbai were in the Indian Cricket Team namely Sachin,
Zaheer, AjitAgarkar, RomeshPawar, &Rohit Sharma.
Karnataka too in the 90s had their share in the Indian Team Composition Rahul
Dravid, Anil Kumble, JavagalSrinath, Venkatesh Prasad & Sunil Joshi were
part of the same team. In these times of
high concentration of players from patticular geographies of the country
M S dhoni emerged from nowhere & went on to leave his footprint on the
world.
Dhoni & the
captaincy have been synonomous during the last decade or so. After having made
his debut in 2004 he has come a long way in his career.
Since much of the
talk happening around his leadership & captaincy issues ( we have only
known Dhoni in this way only) we all
have forgotten what Dhoni has achieved as a cricketer. He is close to having
amassed 10000 ODI runs with an astounding average of 51. That’s not a small
feat especially coming at No 6 & batting with tailenders. The fact of remaining
unbeaten many times (67) might have helped his average.
Mat
|
Inns
|
NO
|
Runs
|
HS
|
Ave
|
|
Tests
|
90
|
144
|
16
|
4876
|
224
|
38.09
|
ODIs
|
290
|
250
|
67
|
9338
|
183*
|
51.02
|
T20Is
|
76
|
66
|
33
|
1209
|
56
|
36.63
|
It would be unfair to
compare Dhoni’s career with anybody as everyone is different & a great
player but still a peak into the career
of few of the players who played alongside Dhoni reveals that he has not done badly
either. Statistics are like biknis, they hide more than what they reveal.
Suddenly the world
came to know on 4th January 2017 that Mahi had decided to give up
his ODI & T20 captaincy & will only be available for selection in the
team as a wicketkeeper batsman.I too was stunned. It was like a new year has just begun we are
in the middle of a cricketing schedule with England with ODIs and T 20 matches
still remaining ( though they have been defeated 4-0 in the Test Match series
just concluded by the Team led by Virat Kohli) how can the captain call it
quits . That’s Dhoni for You, our own Mahi whom we have been fortunate to watch
over the last decade or so.He has always been like that keeping his cards close
to his chest, not giving anyone any iota of hint of what’s going on in his
mind.That’s his own way of dealing with
things, nothing right or wrong about it. He had surprised us earlier also by
quitting Test Cricket Completely in the middle of the test series against
Australia in Australia ( Dec 14 ). Honestly speaking It's God's Grace that
the chairman of Selectors Mr Sandeep Patil didn’t got the heart attack of his
life, with the ODI world cup few months away.
The Month of Dec holds
a significant place in the life of Dhoni. He made his debut against Bangladesh
in Dec 2004, quit Test Cricket in Dec 14, Quit the captaincy of ODI& T20
Cricket on 4th Jan 17 (we
can easily discount these four days.)
So what has compelled
Dhoni to take this decision all of a sudden, or at least it seems so? During
the last 2 years his magic has a one day captain &player has waned.
In 2015 India had
lost to South Africa at home, were beaten 4-1 in Australia in early 2016, lost
the T20 semifinal to West Indies and then marginally beat NewZealand 3-2
towards the year end of 2016.
In Test Cricket India
had his share of contrasting fortunes. Kohli had enjoyed his splendid run as a
test captain as the in the last 2 years after Dhoni said adieu to Test Cricket
as the statistics would suggest ( till Dec 16 ). India had won 5 test series in
a row under Kohli’s leadership. Out of the Total no of Tests Played 22, India has
lost 2, managed a draw in 2 of them and has won 14 test matches.
It’s very difficult
being a captain of one form of the game as there are 3 formats regularly
played. Split Captaincy doesn’t work unless of course the two teams of
different forms are completely different. If the same set of players play both
the forms of the game reporting to two different set of Individuals……… becomes
difficult.
Mahi as we all know
will be remembered for increasing our
heart beats to stratospheric levels before pulling off a match in the
final stages of the game. Many would have died I believe, I survived the scare
few of the times. He backed himself maniacally, it never mattered who was
standing at the other end. He always played as if he had orchestrated the match
& knew the script beforehand and the same panned out exactly the way he had
wanted it. You rarely see people who
take it upon themselves to see it through and that too till the last ball.
Michael Bevan was one such character but the styles of these two batsmen are
poles apart. Dhoni would take the asking rate to 10-12 runs per over and
sometimes even more than that and always pulled off the victory in the last
over with the self-belief of the opposition shattered. The self-belief was
translated into win with utmost ease or at least it seemed to all of us. But it
was never easy. You go and ask any person facing the ball at 90 miles per hour
with 20 needed of the last over.(Wokehtehainhain Tote udjatehain). The same
script has been repeated n number of times with Mahi being our hero.
And you are handling
the hopes of 1.25 billion people. Cricket is a religion in India where a two
year old learns & starts following Bat & Ball before learning anything
else.
Under Dhoni's captaincy, India have won the top prize in all formats:
the No.1 Test ranking for 18 months starting December 2009, the 50-over World
Cup in 2011 and the World Twenty20 on his captaincy debut in 2007 which took the
world by storm and was a harbinger of things to come.
Mr Dhoni has given us
enough reasons to look back & cry, smile & reminisce those golden
moments.Mahi at the other end of the
wicket was always a good enough reason to miss one’s evening date with Pamela
Anderson or JLO.
A
walk through some of the onliners from the eminent personalities about Dhoni is
reproduced below:
- “On my deathbed I would like to see the final six hit by Dhoni in the World Cup 2011 final against Sri Lanka.”- Sunil Gavaskar
- “Want a six in the pressure situation, Call MS Dhoni”- Ramiz Raza
- “If you come to srilanka you would find that Dhoni has more fans than any other Srilankan player”- Arjun Ranatunga
- “I pray that a tennis player should emerge from Ranchi as MS Dhoni emerged for Cricket.”- Sania Mirza
But some people like
our ex cricketer & captain Mr
MohinderAmarnath is of the view “ Kiyakyahai Dhoni ne” that’s his personal
belief. Ok let’s assume for a moment (for a moment only as it is an assumption,
truth is something different) that Dhoni has not done anything. India won the 1st
edition of the T 20 World Cup after
Dhoni was being appointed as a captain
of the T20 and ODI team in 2007 ,( after
being ousted from the tournament in the knockout stage after losing to
Bangladesh which will become the folklore and will be talked about in the
decades to come under the leadership of our own great the Wall Mr Rahul
Dravid.) became the No 1 Test Team when
he was leading the side, won the ODI World Cup after a hiatus of 24 years ( we
were strikingly close in 2003 when the destiny if one chooses to say so had
other plans), won the Champions Trophy in 2013 all because our own Almighty
choose it to be so. Dhoni has done nothing in winning these three major
tournaments.
This
issue can be debated till all the cows come homeas Everybody is entitled to his
views as we are living in the world’s
biggest Democracy
I
am a big Sourav Ganguly Fan but does that mean that you would hate Mr Mahi.
It's perfectly fine if you love both your beautiful wife and not so beautiful
girlfriend at the same time.
When you love you love,
“pyaar kyun karte hain" "kisko kam karte hain” shhhhhhh….. doesn’t matter.
He had achieved whatever needed to be achieved
as a captain, haan it was a different matter that he couldn’t please
everybody.( Somebody has aptly said If you want to fail in life start pleasing
everybody.) So he choose not to fail and
that was his fault.
We don’t mind
graytying to the numbers of Sunny Leone ( Laila mein Laila Kiasi mein Laila) I don’t
know what is the percentage of her Indianness
but we have problems in acknowledging the accomplishments of a person
who is an Indian by Birth ( are baba there are documents substantiating that
Dhoni is an Indian) who has made the country proud on the global map.
So another big name
will soon go into the sunset sooner or later.
But then wo kehte hai na“ All good things must come to an end.”Uffff he will be missed that cool demeanor behind the stumps, those two
arms in action swirling across each other, the chattering caught on the stumps
microphone talking to and about his teammates. Those onliners while addressing
the media some of which are reproduced below:
- As after losing 8 straight Tests to England & Australia in 2012 he had said “ When you die you die. You don't see which the better way to die is”.
- On Duckwork Lewis rules during the Champions Trophy 2017- I don’t think even ICC understands it.
- On losing the Test Series 4-0 against England in England- “I won’t Count it as a bad performance, It was so bad that I don’t count it as a performance”.
- On the repeated let downs by the Indian tail- Now even PETA has said you can’t cosmetically remove the tail.
- About his retirement after Losing to the West Indies in semifinal of T20 World Cup 2016-Is the jouranalist happy with the way he is running between the wickets or his wicket keeping. Does he have a brother or a son who can do the job better than him.
Since January after giving up captaincy Dhoni scored his 1st
century against England since Oct 2013 ( 10th Overall ) stitching a
record 256 runs partnership with Yuvraj
Singh which was reminiscent of their World Cup 2011 Final against Srilanka. He
was instrumental in ensuring that Rising Stars Pune reached to the Final of 10th
IPL edition 2017. On 30th June 2017 He played another knock of 79
not out against West Indies couple of days ago. By doing so he has left behind
Adam Gilchirist in terms of runs scored in International Cricket, and is only
to next Mr Sangakara of Srilanka. This
is not a mean feat given that he has a batted at No 5 or 6 and sometimes at 7. Records now a
days belong to the top 3 batsmen of the line up.
By relinquishing
captaincy what Dhoni has ensured is another 2-3 years of International Cricket.
He is almost 36 now & if all goes well he might play the 2019 World Cup in England to be held
in May. He is still the best wicketkeeper in the world hitting the stumps
frequently Mohd. Azharuddin’s way which no keeper in the world
does at present. He still commands the respect of the dressing room. Probably his reflexes while batting are not
the same as they used to be couple of years ago which is natural as age
advances. But he is still a 30 ball 45-50 runs player. The 19th over
in particular which was taken to all corners of the ground in the just concluded IPL is a testimony to
that.Wridhiman Saha has settled well in the Test wicketkeeper’s slot. The likes
of Dinesh Kartik, Parthiv Patel & the newly found sensational lad Mr Rahul
Pant are waiting on the fringes for their share of flesh.
There are two full
years from now. Will he won’t he? Will 2019 will be the swansong of his
starstudded career? It’s a bit early I think to decide. He has earned every
right to go on his terms, & the world will not be able to know when he
decides that. Adam Gilchrist decided to say it quits when he felt that his legs were not moving.Dhoni is beyond
numbers now. I think We all should be concerned with the value which he brings
to the table. Virat Kholi still
discusses the situations with him when he is perplexed. We can take the
captaincy out of Dhoni but not the captain.
We all should leave
that to him & enjoy being hypnotised&mesmerised by his glovework&
batting at display.