Times of great calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm. Mahendra Singh Dhoni epitomizes that to perfection.
Here is a country kid from the town of Ranchi; a place not known for producing international cricketers. In 2003, Dhoni was 21 and working as a railway ticket clerk. A little more than a year later he was in the Indian One Day team, bursting to prominence when he scored 148 from 123 balls against Pakistan and showed that that glorious innings was no fluke later in the year with a blistering 183 from 145 balls against Sri Lanka, which made child’s play of a steep target of 299.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has departed from Test cricket in the most unruffled manner possible. This man has always maintained a calm persona and never demonstrates that he is a superstar all over the word. And today, he has called it quits from tests, sweeping people off their feet as he has done so often, but with unique style of batting and his tranquil nature instead.
There will be not be a farewell game, nor will there be a parade for him around any stadium. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has walked into the sunset, as far as tests are concerned, without so much as a fanfare. His greatest quality was that he showed that he was someone who was first and foremost his own man, knew what he was about and candidly did not give a toss as to what the rest of the world thought. Dhoni brought to captaincy a thick skin and relative indifference to results that an Indian captain needs if he wants to keep the job for long.
45 minutes after MS Dhoni had finished his press conference after the MCG Test, the BCCI sent a press release with this news. It was after India had managed to draw an away Test, the first time in the last fourteen Australia vs India tests that the tourists haven’t lost. It felt unreal. Everything came to a halt for a moment. Was the man who has taken to the pinnacle of Test cricket going to leave after all? It was typical Dhoni, who never tries to hog the limelight. He is the first person to stand up when the team performs poorly and face all the flak; when the team is victorious he takes a step back and allows others to receive the plaudits.
He was just teb tests away from playing his 100th Test, which was not far away at all, and a mere 124 runs away from 5000 runs in test cricket. But as he has often shown us, he is a man who never plays for the sake of numbers.
We all were aware deep down that he would end it all day without making a big fuss out of it. It was obvious that he would just walk off and vanish in thin air: gone. He wouldn’t have wanted the farewell to take the focus away from the actual cricket. He always gave you the impression this wasn’t the life he loved or craved; this was just a job that was his responsibility for whatever few years he had. He has ended up being the most successful Indian captain. Through his playing career, Dhoni has had a near antiseptic dislike for the spotlight. He was happy to sweat blood for his team, but he was happiest when left alone. All his cricketing life, he has been infatuated with keeping the sentiment out of it. And he was certainly not going to let it permeate in his final Test.
He never, at any stage, hinted that he was going to retire so abruptly. He displayed great character throughout the MCG test and it felt normal. The closest he came to hinting at his retirement was when he picked a stump out of the ground, despite the fact that India had not won the test, and walked off cheerfully chattering with David Warner. His behaviour was as normal during the customary post-match presentation interview, and he attended the press conference, where he answered in his usual diplomatic and classy manner. These two teams have been rancorous towards each other in this series, to say the least. Dhoni says he believes the cricketers shouldn’t behave in a manner they wouldn’t want the kids to see and maintained that the draw was a fair result.
He has left us with a quote which was emblematic of him. He was asked what is the solution for the disparity between India’s Doberman-like and Australia’s Hanuman-like tails. He signed off in the best possible manner: a bit witty; incredibly charming. He said:
“Now even PETA has said you can’t cosmetically remove the tail.”
Soon after the official announcement, Ravi Shastri put it forward brilliantly when he said: “For every cricketer, you know in your heart when your number is up. But it still takes a lot to walk away. To do what he did, the way he did it, all his career, it’s something people in all walks of life should reflect on. Someone once called me the champion of champions, but, to me, Dhoni is the real champion of champions.”
He personified a good actor who knows he’s played his part and stepped off the stage prudently, leaving those in the spotlight to enjoy it while they could.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni Fact File:
Test Record: 90 Test matches, 4,876 runs, six centuries, 33 fifties and 294 dismissals.
Records:
Highest individual score by an India captain and India wicketkeeper: 224 off 265 balls against Australia in 2013.
Most successful India skipper 60 matches: 27 wins, 18 losses, 15 draws. Win percentage: 45%.
Most runs as India captain: 3,454 runs, five centuries at 40.63.
Most dismissals and catches by an India wicket-keeper@ 294 dismissals – 256 catches and 38 stumpings.
Most dismissals in a match by an India wicke-tkeeper: nine dismissals – eight catches and one stumping against Australia in 2014.
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