Unique personality of MS Dhoni

In 2004 the BCCI began a system by which young talented cricketers around the country would be identified and short-listed. The idea germinated from the fertile brain of Makarand Waingankar, a freelance journalist from Mumbai. Makarand, very rightly, believed that young players from the distant corners of the country were being neglected by the junior and senior national selectors.

Former first-class cricketers were appointed by the BCCI to watch every representative match and to inform the Board of potential talents. PC Poddar and I travelled to Jamshedpur to watch the players in action in the one-day senior inter-state championship in January 2004.

After watching our respective allotted matches at the end of the first day, PC Poddar and I were exchanging notes when he confided, “Raju, today I saw a young man hitting the ball with awesome power. Never before have I seen anybody hitting a ball so hard. Tomorrow have a good look at the Bihar opener with long hair.” Coming from a man of Poddar’s deep knowledge and wide experience, I was very curious to see the player.

Next morning, as I alighted near the Keenan Stadium pavilion gate, I saw a long-haired, strong lad in his mid-20s wearing a tight tee-shirt and denims park his motor cycle. Instantly two dogs came towards him and he brought out some biscuits from his pocket to feed them. The young man’s affection for the road-side canines bowled me over completely.

I asked the Bihar coach, if he was the opener who hit the ball very hard. He replied, “In my Bihar team everybody hits the ball hard. But this boy from Ranchi is an exceptionally hard hitter. He is playing first-class cricket for about 4 years. No one has ever taken any notice of him yet. Why are you so keen to know about him?” By the end of the day, when he had scored just about 40 runs, I realized that I had seen an uncut diamond.

That January 2004 evening both Poddar and I sent our report to the chief Talent Resource Development Officer (TRDO), Dilip Vengsarkar, specifically mentioning the immense power of the young man’s strokes. I wrote, “…his exceptional power and positive approach can demolish any bowling attack. He should be looked at without delay.” As it transpired, BCCI took serious note of the report and the career graph of a young talent from a neglected part of India took an upward curve within a few months.

Author Gulu Ezekiel wrote of the incident in his book Captain Cool in 2008. Later Makarand Waingankar mentioned the significant event in various articles in The Hindu to highlight the success of the talent-scouting system of BCCI. Other sports in India would do well to follow a similar scheme to unearth talents from the obscure corners of the country.

Dhoni’s career graph is a unique case in Indian cricket. Hailing from a family of very modest financial background, he had little option but to accept whatever job came his way. The Indian Railways gave him a job based at Kharagpur in Bengal but, true to tradition, decided that a man from the eastern region would not be good enough for the all-India Railways cricket team!

The Railways recruited him for his cricket ability, yet it appeared they had no faith in their own choice! The Railway employee Dhoni never got a look in from the very people who were given the responsibility to handle the Railway cricket team.

As disappointing were the selectors of East Zone. Although he had already played for no less than 4 years for Bihar in first-class cricket, not one selector – zonal or national – ever thought that this man had any exceptional ability in him! Such were the former cricketers who were entrusted with the job to select talent. Based at Kharagpur in Bengal, he could have been selected for Bengal as well. But no selector from Bengal from 1996 to 2003 ever thought of him.

The tough, talented youth had little exposure to the ‘big names’ of Indian cricket when he was at Ranchi and Jamshedpur. He picked up the finer points from various sources as he went along without ever forgetting his first school coach, “Banerjee Sir” as Dhoni still most respectfully addresses him. He kept his ears and eyes open in the India dressing room to observe what Tendulkar and Dravid were doing to prepare themselves for the battles ahead. Off the field, his cool and composed personality was just the right ingredient required for a person craving to learn the ways of the world.

Reams have been devoted to his exceptional abilities. I shall not repeat those to bore my readers. But I would like to relate that never before have we had a leader in India as exemplary as the man from Ranchi. He led India to the inaugural T20 world cup trophy with all the top names of Indian cricket missing! A young set of keen lads helped the relaxed captain to bring off one victory after another. Before leading India, did Dhoni ever lead a cricket team?  Honestly, I doubt it.

The magnificent man went on lead India to the world ODI title. As if these crowns were not enough, Dhoni led India to become the numero uno in the Test rankings. No other Indian captain has been able to match these statistical highlights.

Despite such magnificent achievements, the cool and composed man still remains as modest and accessible as he was two decades back when he was making his debut in first-class cricket. Far from stooping to gamesmanship, he was the epitome of the ‘spirit of cricket’ concept. His classic calling back of Ian Bell in England will forever remain a great lesson in sportsmanship.

Never took advantage of his position. Never promoted players of his choice. He respected the selectors and allowed them to do their job. Never got involved with any publicity stunts. Never bothered to get into conflicts and controversies. Detested sledging and avoided verbal duels. Never resorted to any one-upmanship.

His persona was and still is such that people consider him to be the leader, whether he is formally leading the team or not. A unique leader, if ever there was one.