Thank you Dhoni
I woke up today, picked my phone as usual with my eyes still half closed and the first notification was a Whatsapp message from a friend — Why did Dhoni retire at 1929??. It took me a second to process the message but that was enough to jolt me awake. Then came the Instagram post — Main pal do pal ka shayar hun, pal do pal meri kahani hai.
The inevitable moment has finally arrived, MS Dhoni has retired from international cricket. I am still coming to grip with this, but we all knew this was coming. So much so that, I had begun a draft for Dhoni’s retirement right after India’s semifinal loss to New Zealand. It took a year but the tug at the heartstrings is still the same.
I am a OG Dravid fan. The square drive, the finesse, the aesthetic beauty of a front foot defence overall there was a sense of nobility in Dravid’s cricket. So I have asked myself this question multiple times — How did I end up becoming a Dhoni fanboy? What made me support and respect this savage, unorthodox and sometimes ugly cricketer?
When Dhoni broke into the scene early, he took world cricket by storm — 148 in Pakistan, 183 vs Sri Lanka. But amidst this massive innings, two small events stood out to me. The first was the 2 runs he stole with Raina. While Sunny G went on and on about how important it was to convert ones into twos. Dhoni converted a zero to two! Then in the same series when the batsmen were using their feet to take on the spinners, Dhoni pointed Sachin to bowl wide outside off stump and stole a stumping. You couldn’t miss his presence. The massive in your face swashbuckling presence! And there he had my curiosity.
Post the tumultuous exit of 2007 World Cup, he lead a young Indian team to the first T20 World Cup and came out victorious. It was a great feat. The entire country was going gaga(My Dhoni-fanboy-brother was the worst of them all). I was still not entirely sold but again another thing stood out. His quote from post match presentation with Ravi Shashtri — “Before I start I should say I read an article by you in Cricinfo. You’d said Australia were the favourites. Today I think me and the boys, we proved you wrong”. He had my curiosity. But now, he had my attention.
2008, Commonwealth Series — Ponting says we only need 2 finals. Proves him right and also tells his team to sober down their celebrations. He wanted to let the mighty Aussies know this was not an aberration. This performance by India will be the norm going forward. “Yeh naya hindustan hai. Yeh ghar mein ghusega bhi aur maarega bhi”, that was what Dhoni was getting across, albeit in a far less cringe worthy way. Now he had my curiosity, my attention and respect.
The transition from a doubter to fanboy was complete. The World Cup victory only strengthened my loyalty. The boy who loved Dravid’s charismatic square drive now longed for Dhoni’s pulverising hoick over the midwicket.
With Dhoni, the Indian team brought about a mindset change, from an aspirational mindset to a dominant one(Although Ganguly did do his part in this). Something India as a country is going through right now.
His leadership. When the greatest in sports wilted under pressure(look at Messi against Bayern yesterday) this man took pressure head on. He owned up responsibility when his team lost, but pushed himself to the backdrop when the team won.
The moments of adrenaline highs and the wonderful state of euphoria that usually followed. Those crazy strangers hugging each other and distributing sweets in the middle of the night after WC 2011! The run out that knocked Bangladesh out, Clint Mackay over long on and all other nerve wracking finishes.
You could go and on. If you went and asked 10 people of what made Dhoni special you might probably get 10 different answers and there in lies his legend. Dhoni stood for hope! Whether we were 9 down or there was 32 needed off 2 overs, with Dhoni on strike there was always hope. It is that hope that will be the biggest thing we will miss.
His kahani is not one for do pal. It is one for eternity. The legend of Dhoni, the kid from a small town who went on to inspire billions will be told over and over again.
Thank you for everything, Dhoni. As much as I hate to see you in yellow, I will be silently rooting for you in every single match.
Your fan forever.
