MS Dhoni - a small-town cult hero who made India dream

With an iconic Mukesh song from Yash Chopra’s Kabhie Kabhie playing in the background, Dhoni bid good-bye to international cricket, at 19:29, in a cryptic Instagram post, with the photo collage encapsulating the highs and lows of his career. There was the picture of the T20 World Cup win, another picture of people pelting stones at his house. There was a picture of his World Cup-winning six and there was another picture of THAT World Cup run-out. There were tributes to seniors and friends and there was the gratification of the massive success he accumulated during his tenure. The video was classic Dhoni, untouched by the success and failures while treating the sports’ two imposters alike. 

Scale it up to the size of MS Dhoni and then imagine the impact he would have had on Ranchites and the whole aspiring lot from the inaccessible corners of the country. That is the legacy MS Dhoni has left behind - a legacy of hope, happiness, success and growth. It is the leap of faith that the country owes a lot to the man. From Sarupeta to Raichur, from Rahuri to Telhara, from Karumadi to Jandiala, the Dhoni impact is clearly visible in the nook and cranny of the country and in no small measure.

Dhoni’s rise from a small town in Bihar to be an international icon extra-ordinary has also coincided with the rise of new India. Sachin Tendulkar made India dream, but underneath his temper was a surface urbanity. But Dhoni, with his unique and unorthodox style, fulfilled all of them. But he was no genie, he did it all in front of us, with a swagger in his walk, smile on his face and an inherent weakness to end Mumbai-Delhi-Bengaluru-Chennai monopoly. 

Chennai calls him one of their own, which the man reciprocated with all sincerity, but he is too proud a Jharkhandi to be settled anywhere but his home city. He still trains at the JSCA ground, goes to the same gym as other age-group players, drinks tea with ground-staff in the common room and obliges hundreds of selfie requests on a day, all with a smile on his face. He is still Mahi (Ma-hii) for them and not the Mahi (Maa-hi) that the world calls him now. 

He sat down for a while under it, smiled and made his way to the ground. No fuss whatsoever. However, before anyone could realise anything, the then Indian skipper picked up a few bottles by himself and put them in the garbage. If there was a point you needed to invest in to understand how Dhoni remains so relaxed in the face of adversity, that was it. He connects with the base and remains grounded because he is detached from the urbanity.

You don’t need to look too far ahead from Jharkhand to understand the impact of MS Dhoni. Varun Aaron, Shahbaz Nadeem, and Saurabh Tiwary have represented India after him, and now Ishan Kishan and Virat Singh have set up the stall for bigger things. But remember, all of this was from the most inauspicious of beginnings. Let alone being a feeder system to the Indian team, Jharkhand, by the time Dhoni emerged, were not even the second-best team from a zone that was a perennial underperformer. Bengal and Odisha, result-wise, triumphed over them many times but now the story has taken a turn. Jharkhand is not just one of the best teams in the country, they can lay claim to have been the best on more than one occasion.