Mahi..... The Small Town Boy

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 4^th 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 4^th   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 1^st 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 1^st century against England since Oct 2013 ( 10^th 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 10^th IPL edition 2017. On 30^th 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 19^th 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.