Like majority of the female population of this country, I am a huge fan of Mahi. No I don’t think he is great looking nor adore his locks. What I adore about him is his temperament.
My longest lasting crush was on Rahul Dravid whom I again adored for his temperament. But I think Dhoni goes a step further. While Dravid was cool and composed Dhoni is aggressive, cool and composed. Dhoni is proactive and takes his job seriously as a captain. He has no hesitation about voicing his opinion or offering advice to the legends of the game as he looks upon them as players whom he is expected to lead. In the recent Mohali match I was amused to see him walk up to Dada to tell him something during their long partnership.
Another adorable quality is he is objective and leads from the front. The fact that he promoted himself before the fab 3 in the second innings without even worrying about whether they would feel slighted goes to show that for him “the team indeed comes first.”
The third quality that impresses me is the way he handles the press conferences. His answers are as straightforward and crude as his shots. For instance in the post-match conference at Mohali when he was asked about how India had got the better of Australia in verbal volleying, he retorted by saying, “if we had to win the match on verbals, we would have hired a few people who were experts at that”. He is also refreshingly self-effacing and down-to-earth.
Lastly and to me the most important are his special “gestures”. It’s difficult enough to control the heady sense of victory and the adrenaline rush when we have won an important series. But captain cool does not just keep cool but goes beyond that. How? Remember when India won the One day series down under when people all around were dancing about in glee, Dhoni quietly headed towards the dressing room to find Sachin whose important innings had won India the match. Numerous other gestures like driving the bike no matter who won the man of the match, handing over the stump to Ganguly or even giving his shirt to a young kid on the boundary line.
In this modern age of at times dirty aggressive cricket, it’s nice to see these warm gestures which bring out the softer- humane side of our super-heroes.
By Pravda
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Yamma Maahi
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4 comments:
Maahi belongs to those class of sportsmen who have deep roots in the small towns of India. Consequently, their attitude and outlook of the game rest strongly on the premise of determination and hard work. Unsurprisingly, that shows in his approach in the international arena where Indian cricket requires strong and stable personalities to uphold the "gentleman" element of the game.
Dhoni as a person was born to play cricket. He exemplifies the child personality in each of us where we really enjoy doing what we like most. The coolness, the aggro, patience comes to him naturally. There is an aura of honesty about him that surprises me even. Make no mistake, if push comes to shove in some situations he'll be the first one to lead the way. In addtion, I love the way he has handled the aggression of his team mates. While its great to see gentlemanly behaviour, recent cases of Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir have shown that this guy allows some personal space to his players. Alright they were fined but it sends outs a strong signal to the opposition. I absolutely love it.
Now if he could get some sense into Sreesanth ... sigh!!!
Yeah, reflects in the new Youngistan Pepsi commercial (indicating Sreesanth) - Lekin isko abhi tak nahi samajh paya!
Great Piece! I loved the write-up in the manner you placed all the points to sketch a "cricketing star" who can still be adored for his personal traits , warmth and small town sensitivities in a game that has off late been rife with malice and double standards. In an era when cricketing "aura" is also driven by advertising and programme TRP's, Dhoni is definitely "hatke" and he definitely does not need a "Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina" tag to reel in his personal TRP's! Bravo - Mahi Ve!!
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