This is a timestamp that will be recorded for posterity - 1929 hours on the 15th of August 2020. At the potential peak of the COVID-19, and on India's 73rd Independence Day, an iconic cricketer, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD) announced his retirement from international cricket. The mightiness of this extraordinary cricketer simply lies in the narrative he changed, both today and when he played for India. As a cricket fan, there are a few things that I learnt from MSD that indicated the art of the possible.
He changed the narrative in the initial days of his career itself, with his long hair, pulsating strokeplay lower down the batting order, only to be matched by extraordinary glove work behind the stumps. That combination alone had not been seen on a cricket field before. We never knew about anything called a helicopter shot before he played it, either! MSD proved to us that being unorthodox, creating your own brand of cricket, and yet sticking to the high standards of the game are perfectly capable of co-existing with each other.
Needless to say, his iconic rise to global stardom from small town India is now part of cricketing folklore. That aspect of his great career alone, made many subsequent Indian cricketers and Indians from various walks of life to believe that their skills could also matter on the world stage. He taught us to dream, and to dream big for a better tomorrow, to be recognised for your skill and for who you are. His hometown, Ranchi, which was considered an after-thought as a cricketing venue, got one of the greatest sporting facilities in the country and a pavilion named after MSD! Clear impact of the man and what he delivered as a cricketer!
In the context of the world entering the great financial crisis, in 2008-09, with many people losing hope, MSD offered hope. Simply because, he showed us the ability to bounce back. The Indian cricket team did not qualify for even the quarter-finals in the ICC World Cup in 2007 and that is considered a huge setback for the team of that time. From that disappointment, the team went on to win the coveted trophy on that famous April night in 2011 in Mumbai. The photograph of MSD's supersonic six off the Sri Lankan bowler, Kulasekara will be etched in the Indian sporting memory forever. What is even more interesting is that MSD was hardly seen in the post-match celebrations and he left the stage for the other cricketing icon, Sachin Tendulkar, to own his moment. MSD, will be known for that winning strike, but he will be remembered even more for his leadership in Indian cricket, especially on that night.
That's the endearing aspect of what MSD did. Yes, he was the captain of the Indian cricket team for nearly 6 years of his career. But, he never looked (from the outside) to be asserting himself on players, seemed to back many cricketers, created and gave small town boys the opportunity to express themselves on the world stage, and build a team that exhibited its skills well. And he was such a quiet man, per media reports. Which tells you a thing or two of how well he must have engaged with the team for them to believe that the decisions he took as a captain would be in their best interests: Another abject lesson of how leadership should be!
Interestingly, his first big win in the T-20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007, was perhaps a pre-cursor of things to follow. The greatest evidence of that accomplishment was the emergence of the global brand called IPL. He was one of the key players who has changed the narrative for 20-20 cricket in the last 13 years. There are endless number of games when MSD kept us on the edge of our seats, in nail-biting finishes in IPL cricket! But what was even more impressive, was the way he was universally accepted by audiences all over India, even though everyone knew that he was the captain of the Chennai Super Kings team. Hardly have we seen a cricketer whose name is chanted in a cricket stadium, when you know that he is the opposition captain. MSD allowed us to celebrate him, as we were cheering our national cricket captain, even though he was playing IPL club cricket! Universal acceptance, is another great thing he taught us.
Nowhere else is this hunger better manifested than in the title of the greatest 'finisher in limited overs cricket' that he earned. Realistically, before him, limited overs cricket did not have too many considerations for the art of winning games from impossible, and nearly losing positions, in a cricket match. Till the time MSD was at the crease, clearly, opposition captains and bowlers would never be able to estimate if they even had a chance of winning. Why and how MSD made them feel that way? That is where I believe the power of his mind to think of solutions to win a game, from any situation, was limitless. A lesson for many of us.
Obviously, as is well known, his temperament is increasingly taking on the flavour of becoming a great case study in psychology and management of emotional intelligence. We are all used to hearing EQ being more important than IQ, when one is at the highest level or at any given level in an organisation. In the case of MSD, to have played his brand of cricket with free expression and an uncluttered mind, with such extraordinary balance and poise, is truly a hard act to follow. It may well be in the realm of a psychological case study on how to stay calm, and maybe he could contribute to some pioneering research in that sphere alone!
In conclusion, MSD is a legacy that will stand the test of time and will be cited as a fantastic example of cricketing greatness. Future generations of cricketers will undoubtedly be advised about the MSD school of cricket, which is hard to replicate and incredibly unique. We must take a moment to recognise that we have in our midst a champion cricketer, who cascaded into our homes with a smile, led the country's cricket team to unimaginable heights, and showed us the merits of free expression of talent and poise. Difficult to get such a combination again.
Thank you, MSD! You will be missed!
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