Facts and Notes: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD) was born in Ranchi on 7 July, 1981. Mahi was naturally talented at sports, excelling at hockey, table tennis, badminton and football. He was a football goal keeper.
His tryst with cricket was quite accidental. It happened when he was in class VII when his sports instructor Keshab Ranjan Banerjee asked him to try his hands at wicket keeping when the then incumbent of the cricket team was not available for a match. The logic was, goalkeeping and wicket keeping are similar and since he was good as a football goalkeeper he would be able to adapt to wicket keeping. Could this be called, ‘Cricket’s’ gain and ‘football’s’ loss!! In 1998 Dhoni joined the Central Coalfields Limited where he received a monthly stipend of Rs.2200. It was with this money that the 18yr old bought his first second-hand bike. Later on, he took up his first full time job in 2001 as a ticket collector in Indian Railways.
Dhoni and National Cricket :
The innings that shot him to national prominence was the Deodhar trophy match against Central zone in 2004 while he was working for Indian Railways.
After this, Dhoni rarely looked back. He went on to his second game against Zimbabwe Select 11 in Harare where Dinesh Karthik played as a specialist batsmen while Dhoni donned the keeper’s gloves –It was the first time he wore India colours.
The match against Pakistan on 16th August 2004, in the tri-nation tournament in Kenya involving India ’A’, the hosts and Pakistan ‘A’ marked Dhoni’s first International century. His ODI Debut was in the India vs. Bangladesh match at Chittagong, 23 Dec 2004.
The tour of Pakistan 2001:
There were four centuries in Pakistan’s massive 679 for 7 declared. The Indian response was a massive opening partnership of 410 runs, Sehwag with 254 , Dravid with 128 not out and that’s where the test ended.
The next test at Faisalabad: India’s bowlers were thrashed to the tune of 588 as captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and Afridi made went on a rampage. Indians lost 5 wickets in a heap. At 281 for five, the Indians still needed more than 100 runs to avoid the follow-on. It was a nervy time for Dhoni to walk to the crease. Akthar bowled with a terrifying speed with the second new ball. As Akthar bowled to Dhoni – the first ball of the over was heading straight for his temple. But in Dhoni's mind the decision had already been made. On such choices are careers made or broken. The ball was smashed over square-leg for six. There was a touch of Viv-Richards style arrogance to it. Akthar roared in, striving for more and more pace and losing out on accuracy. Dhoni grew in confidence and smacked a few more daring shots till the bowler conceded defeat and walked off, head bowed.
In the one-day match at Rawalpindi, Dhoni took the bowling to task. Dhoni tore into the bowling. His smashing 72 from 46 deliveries earned him the ‘Man of the Match’ award and led Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac to describe his batting rather chillingly as : ‘hooligan stuff, casually violent and full of chauvinistic machismo’.
As he started making headlines in the cricketing arena, he spearheaded into the ad world as well, with Exide batteries, Cherry Blossom shoe polish, GE Money, TVS bikes, Pepsi, Reebok, Bharat Petroleum and Videocon Electronics being the early brands he signed on.
A small peek at his personal life - at home in Ranchi it is his dogs, black Labrador Zara, and pug Sam that he loves to spend time with. Asked what kind of girl he would eventually marry, he stated categorically that she should be an animal lover. Hope it rings bells for his die hard young lady fans :)
His tryst with cricket was quite accidental. It happened when he was in class VII when his sports instructor Keshab Ranjan Banerjee asked him to try his hands at wicket keeping when the then incumbent of the cricket team was not available for a match. The logic was, goalkeeping and wicket keeping are similar and since he was good as a football goalkeeper he would be able to adapt to wicket keeping. Could this be called, ‘Cricket’s’ gain and ‘football’s’ loss!! In 1998 Dhoni joined the Central Coalfields Limited where he received a monthly stipend of Rs.2200. It was with this money that the 18yr old bought his first second-hand bike. Later on, he took up his first full time job in 2001 as a ticket collector in Indian Railways.
Dhoni and National Cricket :
The innings that shot him to national prominence was the Deodhar trophy match against Central zone in 2004 while he was working for Indian Railways.
After this, Dhoni rarely looked back. He went on to his second game against Zimbabwe Select 11 in Harare where Dinesh Karthik played as a specialist batsmen while Dhoni donned the keeper’s gloves –It was the first time he wore India colours.
The match against Pakistan on 16th August 2004, in the tri-nation tournament in Kenya involving India ’A’, the hosts and Pakistan ‘A’ marked Dhoni’s first International century. His ODI Debut was in the India vs. Bangladesh match at Chittagong, 23 Dec 2004.
The tour of Pakistan 2001:
There were four centuries in Pakistan’s massive 679 for 7 declared. The Indian response was a massive opening partnership of 410 runs, Sehwag with 254 , Dravid with 128 not out and that’s where the test ended.
The next test at Faisalabad: India’s bowlers were thrashed to the tune of 588 as captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and Afridi made went on a rampage. Indians lost 5 wickets in a heap. At 281 for five, the Indians still needed more than 100 runs to avoid the follow-on. It was a nervy time for Dhoni to walk to the crease. Akthar bowled with a terrifying speed with the second new ball. As Akthar bowled to Dhoni – the first ball of the over was heading straight for his temple. But in Dhoni's mind the decision had already been made. On such choices are careers made or broken. The ball was smashed over square-leg for six. There was a touch of Viv-Richards style arrogance to it. Akthar roared in, striving for more and more pace and losing out on accuracy. Dhoni grew in confidence and smacked a few more daring shots till the bowler conceded defeat and walked off, head bowed.
In the one-day match at Rawalpindi, Dhoni took the bowling to task. Dhoni tore into the bowling. His smashing 72 from 46 deliveries earned him the ‘Man of the Match’ award and led Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac to describe his batting rather chillingly as : ‘hooligan stuff, casually violent and full of chauvinistic machismo’.
As he started making headlines in the cricketing arena, he spearheaded into the ad world as well, with Exide batteries, Cherry Blossom shoe polish, GE Money, TVS bikes, Pepsi, Reebok, Bharat Petroleum and Videocon Electronics being the early brands he signed on.
A small peek at his personal life - at home in Ranchi it is his dogs, black Labrador Zara, and pug Sam that he loves to spend time with. Asked what kind of girl he would eventually marry, he stated categorically that she should be an animal lover. Hope it rings bells for his die hard young lady fans :)
The World Cup fiasco and aftermath:
India crashed out of the world cup at the opening stage and the World Cup was a financial failure… Rumours floated around that companies sporting their logos on bats had clauses offering bonuses linked more to the time the player spent at the crease than actual runs scored. The BCCI had reacted to these in a haste. The board decided that players’ personal endorsements would be restricted to three products and not more than two players could endorse products other than those contracted to the board. Indian cricket was at its low and bitterness was in the air. Just 6 months from then things were to change…
The 20-20 world cup match between India and Pakistan at Durban: The match ended up in a tie. Bowl-out was employed to decide the winner, Cricket’s equivalent of football’s penalty shoot-out. The first three Indian bowlers – Sehwag, Harbhajan and Uthappa- hit the stumps while the Pakistanis all missed. India had won the match by the football-like score of 3-0. Dhoni revealed that the Indians had been preparing for such an eventuality during practice sessions.
The Critics: Dhoni’s 100th ODI catch was caught out on a technicality. Former wicket keeper Ian Healy, spotted that Dhoni’s specially manufactured gloves had extra webbing between the thumb and the forefinger and reported it to match referee Jeff Crowe. The gloves were deemed illegal as according to the rules the wicket keeper’s gloves should have no webbing between the fingers except joining index finger and thumb. Dhoni was let off with a warning and was asked to change the gloves immediately. But the controversy blew over when Australian wicket keeper Adam Gilchrist sprang to his defense. Dhoni has since switched to custom-made gloves with a green camouflage design reflecting his passion for all things connected with the military.
There’s lot more to the Dhoni story- be it his captaincy leading to the 20-20 world cup win or his performance at the 20-20 Indian Premier League or his love for pets and passion for military… All this and more , but can he be termed a legend as yet??? Well, that's debatable.
Lets Learn a few things from ‘Captain Cool’: Time to see what one can take away from this book. This book being a biography , the main learnings come from the characteristics of the protagonist- our Captain Cool in this case.
Some of the super features of MSD are his:
· Unconventional appeal
· Positive mindset
· Desire to Perform Consistently and Perform Greatly
· Casually violent nature
· Silent yet a strong Presence
· Level-headedness in a crisis
· Attitude to do what he is good at and what he thinks is right
& the
· Arrogance and attitude with which he Crushes his opponents All these are great management and life lessons indeed…..
CHOICE WORDS/PHRASES
MORE QUOTES
Recommendation: A decent read.
