The Bhagavad Gita explains that
character is core to effective leadership. That explains why Mahendra Singh
Dhoni (born 7 July, 1981 in Ranchi) has become one of India’s best ever
leaders.
His ability to manage the dynamics of
the Indian dressing room sets him apart. Even as a youngster in the team, he
had an ability to move comfortably between the senior and junior groups. He was
never afraid to speak his mind.
The first thing that I noticed about
Dhoni was his calm and relaxed demeanour which was epitomised by his warm
smile. His serene nature gave off an ascetic air that attracted people to him.
If first appearances are important,
Dhoni is a winner. Corporate India obviously thinks so. He has become an icon
of modern India.
Dhoni’s body language suggested that
he was confident without being cocky. He preferred to be approached rather than
do the approaching, but he was always prepared to talk. His interests were many
and varied, but generally involved power and machines. MSD loves motorbikes,
knows a lot about military aircraft and has an affinity for weapons.
The softer side of him is demonstrated
by his knowledge of and love for nature and animals. The contradictions in
Dhoni make him interesting. The same traits show through in his cricket with
the paradoxes of his carefree attitude on the one hand and
ultra-competitiveness on the other.
As a coach, I always liked to have
someone other than the captain to talk to when the team came off the field, to
clarify what I had seen from a distance. When one is not on the field, one
misses many of the nuances that can help piece the puzzle together.
The wicketkeeper is generally the best
person to do this for he is right in the middle of the action. Dhoni is
brilliant. He is a great observer who sums up situations well and explains
himself clearly and succinctly. The information that he relayed to me made it
easier to offer insights and suggestions to the captain, if needed.
It was through these sessions that I
was convinced that Dhoni would one day be an ideal captain and leader. The
depth of his understanding of the game was exceptional and his willingness to
embrace pressure situations was both comforting and inspiring.
I remember one occasion when we were
batting second in an ODI against Pakistan in Karachi early in 2006. We were
chasing a challenging total of 287 and Pakistan was bowling well.
Our openers, Gautam Gambhir and Rahul
Dravid did well to negotiate some good early bowling, but our run rate was
steadily dropping behind what was required. Dhoni was due to bat at No. 4
behind Yuvraj, but seemed to be quite relaxed. I was trying to remain composed,
but was silently hoping for a few boundaries to ease the pressure.
As much for something to do, to keep
myself from squirming in my seat and making it obvious that I felt the pressure
was building, I went and sat next to Dhoni and asked him how he felt we were
going. Matter-of-factly, he said that provided we were 100 at the 20-over mark
and 150 after 30, we would win.
Thanks to a run-a-ball century from
Yuvraj and a 56-ball 77 not out from Dhoni, we won in a canter. I stopped
worrying from that point on, for Dhoni seemed capable of pacing a chase no
matter what the asking rate. He was confident in his ability to pull out a
boundary or two whenever needed.
No ground is big enough to contain
him. He is the best finisher in limited-overs cricket that I have seen and he
possesses some of the most unique and astonishing shots in his armoury.
DIFFERENT STORY
Test cricket has been a different
story for Dhoni. He has played some excellent innings at different times, but,
by and large, he appears to have fallen between two stools. His natural
tendency is to dominate the bowling and his best innings have been when he has
done this. When the team has been under pressure, especially in foreign
conditions, he has sometimes struggled to find the right meter and has not been
able to muster the same patience to get through tough spells of bowling as he
has in 50-over cricket.
He should have been to India’s middle
order what Adam Gilchrist was to Australia, but Test cricket has not suited his
personality as perfectly as the limited-over formats have done; no doubt he
would prefer a game of draughts to a game of chess.
There are some who think Dhoni is a
modest ’keeper. I disagree. He may not look as natural as some, but he has
great hands. Much like Gilchrist, he is an athlete with gloves on rather than a
natural wicket-keeper.
When I first saw him behind the
stumps, he did not use his legs well and relied on his athleticism and his
supreme hand-eye coordination. This was not going to sustain him over the long
run, so we encouraged him to develop leg strength and through that, his footwork.
He was a keen learner and improved quickly.
He has made mistakes behind the
stumps, but when one considers the amount of cricket he has played in the past
decade, I think his performance has been outstanding. Allied to the demands of
captaincy in all formats, plus the IPL, the workload becomes super-human.
To put it in to context and to carry
on the Gilchrist comparison, Australia declined to consider Gilchrist for the
captaincy because they did not wish to saddle him with any responsibility that
might diminish his performance. He was considered a once-in-a-lifetime
cricketer.
Dhoni as captain leads by example and
breeds confidence in his team by showing faith in individuals. He reads the
game extremely well and is one who trusts his intuition and is not afraid to
take risks at critical moments; particularly in the limited over formats.
There have been times in Test cricket,
when he has appeared bored and uninterested. These periods have invariably been
in foreign conditions when the team was being outplayed.
Two things that he has been criticised
for are the occasional ultra-defensive field placings and his desire to have
conditions overwhelmingly in his favour in Test cricket at home.
I must say that his demand for
extremely spin-friendly wickets on which to play Australia seemed out of
character and surprised me. I expected the warrior in him to want to take
Australia on in more evenly balanced conditions.
Has the pressure of captaincy and the
demand for Team India to win, finally caught up with even his indomitable
belief?
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