Dhoni’s genius and not luck leads him to success Mail Today – Mon 15 Jul, 2013 9:51 AM IST Departing from Rajkot, where I had gone to my old school, Rajkumar College, an eight- year- old young girl, who had heard me giving a motivational talk during the assembly that morning, walked up to me and asked an interesting question. The young and confident girl asked: “Sir, what did you feel when you played for India?” Taken by surprise, I did take a few moments to reply and told her my feeling of elation to represent my country, the anxiety as to how I would perform. I also told her how being successful for my family, friends and all the well wishers, who played a part in my development, was important. The first shock to the system is when your name is announced in the playing XI. This usually takes place at team meetings the night before a match. The ritual is for one to say a few words to your teammates. This is followed by a sleepless night of dreaming and constructing innings and grandiose performances. The reality comes to the fore when one steps on to the ground. The noise of thousands of people brings one to the brink of nervousness and the butterflies in the tummy sends shivers up one’s spine. Amidst these entire uncontrollable sensations, one radiates an external image of confidence of a well- trained sportsman. Brtitain’s Andy Murray started the last week with an incredible performance by winning the Wimbledon singles title, and doing so for each and every British fan. The burden of expectation must have been heavily lying on his shoulders and to come out with flying colours requires immense mental and physical strength and belief. The Ashes series has started with a bang in England. A young 19-year-old Australian, Ashton Agar, has taken the cricket world by storm by registering the highest score of 98 by a No. 11 batsman. Ashton did indicate that he barely slept the night before and for him to have performed so remarkably in front of his near and dear ones speaks volumes for his self- confidence and ability. Nothing is comparable to success. India winning the triangular series final with one wicket by the timely knock of unflappable Mahendra Singh Dhoni makes one belief that maybe there are individuals who have either mastered their nerves, have unbelievable confidence in their ability or are just genius. The way in which Dhoni completed the victory indicates that he seems to have all these three traits rolled into one. I was in the audience of a debate recently, anchored by a well-known TV Channel head. The topic was to understand Dhoni’s performances and whether he has the luck of the devil or the acumen of a truly great leader. There were arguments for and against his tactics, bowling changes and his performances in leading the Test team. But to me the most astonishing aspect was that all these individuals, who have been in the periphery of the Indian captain, were still trying to understand the Man Mountain. They all accepted the fact that the quite reclusive Dhoni has been one that not a single person has been able to fathom. He is a person who they say, is reserved and shows no emotion even to criticism or comments. To effortlessly make the required 15 runs in just four balls of the last over of the match, speaks volumes of his capabilities and self- belief. One cannot just attribute all his winning achievements to luck, as there must be a streak of genius in him. Staying ahead of the game: MS Dhoni Sample this – you are coming in at a difficult situation in a World Cup final carrying the hopes of the nation on your shoulders. This is a match you simply can’t lose. This is the moment you had dreamt of while playing at the backyard with your brother. Teammates, spectators – everyone is looking at you expecting for a performance that would bring joy to their eyes. How’d you feel? That’s pressure. Pressure can make you do silly things. It can make you look stupid. But it can also make you a star. A hero. It’s about how you handle it. You commit mistakes that you normally wouldn’t. Many crumble under pressure, only few thrive on it. For those who enjoy it, they earn a well deserved reward. Performing under pressure is what distinguishes greatness from mediocrity. Great cricketers emerge successful under pressure. Those are the defying moments of their careers. When their names don’t feature in the scorecards, people remember and savour those moments. Like Sachin Tendulkar taking apart Warne at Sharjah, or Brian Lara’s 153 at Bridgetown, or Ricky Ponting’s century at Jo’burg. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has shown remarkable composure under enormous pressure. He simply loves it. It elevates his performances to the highest level. More often than not, he comes out on top defeating both the opposition and pressure. He stays calm letting the situation not affect him. Dhoni doesn’t play his game on the cricketing field against eleven others. He plays it in the minds of the opposition. Like a chess master, his every move is an attempt to outwit and outsmart the opponent. Stay in the present, play the ball as it comes, tell the pundits. But he stays in the future. For Dhoni, present is past. It has already happened in his mind. He has visualised his helicopter crashing into the stands. If that doesn’t happen, he has thought what to do with the next ball. That’s the power of this man. That’s what makes him win chases easily. He stays ahead of the game, ahead of everyone else. He keeps the opposition guessing. He pushes his counterpart to take risks. He throws down the gauntlet. Only few accept it and make him do things differently. Others follow the normal path, which is playing into the hands of Dhoni. In the tri series final, Dhoni challenged Mathews to think differently. Three overs left, and Malinga can bowl only one of those. Mathews could have brought himself on or Eranga. But he went with the plan, bowling Malinga. By bowling himself or Eranga, Dhoni would have had to think differently. He might have tried to finish the game off in that over or he might have tried to save Ishant from facing Malinga – a risk not take. Instead, Malinga bowled, and the rest is history. He is like a lion waiting for the prey to make the move. He waits for it and waits more for that moment to come. When it comes, he seizes victory from the jaws of defeat. He might have pushed the game to 50th over one too many times. But he has won it more often than not. He does all of it with a lot of style, without losing any substance. The flair and flamboyance is still there. He builds up the match to his own climax and writes his own script. He has found a new way to finish off games. The Dhoni way – making the impossible probable! Dhoni kept the team focused By Baidurjo Bose | Mail Today – 1 hour 51 minutes ago Indian cricket was going through one of its lowest phases when Mahendra Singh Dhoni led the team to England for the ICC Champions Trophy. Critics had written the team off, and the spot-fixing allegations and questions over Dhoni’s business interests only made matters worse. Even though BCCI had barred players from talking to the media about the burning issues, it was no secret that it was definitely at the back of their minds. But Dhoni was clear about how he wanted things to pan out. Addressing his first press conference on reaching England, he said that he wanted to keep the team away from the controversies and if players in the team are to be believed, he did a fantastic job. One of the senior players told Mail Today that Dhoni, along with the management, ensured that the nerves of the youngsters were calmed to ensure that their focus didn’t shift away from the task at hand. “While it all seems hunky-dory now, the first few days in England were really tough. We tried our best to focus on the upcoming tournament, but we are also human and would keep thinking about the mess subconsciously. This is where Dhoni and the management really helped. While Dhoni ensured that we weren’t bothered by the media, there would be meetings where the manager and other senior individuals would motivate us and talk about cricketing activities. I feel it was very important as one bad move prior to the tournament could have hampered our campaign,” the player said. “The results of all the team bonding exercises and bonhomie among the players was pretty evident by the time the tournament started. It is often said that the mood inside the dressing room is reflected on the field and our performance shut everyone up. Once we won the Champions Trophy, things were much easier going into the triseries in the West Indies as we were completely in the zone by then and whatever happened prior to the Champions Trophy wasn’t even in the back of our minds. Most importantly, we were on a roll.” A youngster who has come of age and looks to have cemented his place in the team after strong performances in England and the Caribbean feels that while Dhoni protected the younger players like an elder brother in England, his decision to stay with the team despite getting injured in the West Indies sent out the right signal to the players.