Dhoni, the new Midas of Indian cricket

Call it a co-incidence or sheer luck, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has always been at the right place on the right time.

His inimitable coiffure became a cynosure of world leaders. Every inch of his tresses made front page news. He stood by his selected few and brought world to his feet. He gave the small town cricketers a chance to move forward.


He led with the ebullience of King Leonidas of Sparta. Call him the man in love with mean machines. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is by all means the new cricketing blockbuster.

Everyone knows where cricket in India was headed after the Men in Blue stumbled upon the Caribbean hurdle. Indian cricket had hit its lowest point. The coach refused to prolong his stint.

Rahul Dravid tendered his resignation on personal grounds. Tendulkar was offered the captaincy, but he rejected it. No one was ready to take on the gauntlet. The man of the moment or call it a guinea pig then was to be Dhoni, who by default got his hands on the hot seat as he was elevated to vice-captaincy just before the English and Irish tour.

Apparently, it was Sachin who recommended Dhoni’s name. But none other than Dhoni deserved this post for the way he has come up the ranks. His strong rooting to reality and a humble background pushed his case above the glamorous but out-of-form then Yuvraj Singh.

With no godfather, Dhoni’s throne is purely built on raw talent and his ability to treat the game like a game and not a religion. You can call this a stroke of luck that he got the job of a deputy skipper for ODI’s for the first time and was elevated to leader of the pack in no time at all.