A relentless drive for greatness has catapulted conqueror Dhoni into a common man’s hero

M.S. Dhoni was nervous.

He was watching a familiar and, for him, once-his-bread-and-butter phase unfold in the IPL 2023 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The end overs of a run chase that have been so central to his life, where he has played and won so many matches, including the biggest of his life — the 2011 ODI World Cup final against Sri Lanka — and served as the ultimate cricket talisman and guru for his teammates.

But he had never been spotted like this — the version of himself that has for the past two decades mostly been hidden from the public eye — the emotionally-laden leader of sorts. It is a quality that does not always come easily to him, and no one would begrudge one of the most scrutinised cricketers in the world if he wanted to seal off parts of himself.

Emotional

But these are the twilight years of his IPL career, and when the public address announcer and 70,000-odd fans are tracking every move of yours, for once, it is hard for even Dhoni to not get moved by it all. This season’s IPL signature was the limitless affection with which the fans united behind the man wearing the No. 7 yellow jersey. Parochial club loyalties be damned.

Once a ticket collector with the Indian Railways and now unarguably one of the most admired superstars in a port city teeming with them in all fields, more than 1700 kilometres away from his hometown, Ranchi — who would’ve thought?

Dhoni, who will turn 42 in July, batted at 7 and 8 this season while nursing a knee injury. He scored 104 runs off 57 balls with 10 maximums, striking at an impressive 182.45 in 12 innings.

Asked how he stayed grounded despite such fandom around him, Dhoni said, “I think they love me for who I am. Being grounded is something they like about me. Also, because of the kind of cricket I play, everyone in the stadium feels they can play that kind of cricket because there’s nothing orthodox about it. I feel they can relate to me more than anyone else. But as I said, I don’t want to change myself or portray myself in a way that I’m not. So, I like to keep it simple.”

Dhoni knows how to seize a passage of play with thousands of deliriously happy admirers shouting his name, but he will be happy to compete just as hard if the cameras disappear. That’s an awe-inspiring character trait, but speak to those close to Dhoni, and they will tell you that growing up, his knocks, irrespective of their magnitude and the number of people in attendance, became talking points.

“What’s surprising is that people generally talk about a batsman if he scores a 50 or 100… Mahendra was someone people talked about even when he was making scores of 20, 30, or 40. They would recall a long six. So, irrespective of his score, he was always the talk of the town,” Adil Hussain, the former Bihar and Central Coalfields Ltd. captain, told this publication in 2019. Hussain played alongside Dhoni at the club for five years.

Athletes like Dhoni fascinate in part because they seem like proxies for us in a parallel world. Dhoni is ‘Captain Cool,’ ‘Thala’ to the legion of adoring Chennai Super Kings fans, and more for the outside world, but to the vendors back home in Ranchi, the local policemen, and the more than 1.1 million people living in the capital of Jharkhand, he is one of them. He is the shy student who knew cricket was his calling. He is the friend with a big heart, a humble family man.

Emotional impact

One also tends to underestimate the emotional impact that Dhoni’s background has had on those watching the sport. For middle-class and lower middle-class fans, a big part of Dhoni’s appeal is that he seems to negate the intangible divide that exists between cricketers of this age and their fans — he’s just MS, the best finisher in the world, to his fans. There are seventy-year-olds who are just as happy as teenagers would be about having a chance to see Dhoni in person. The excitement is genuine.

In Ranchi, Dhoni’s roots are celebrated as fondly as his name and what he has achieved. Dhoni’s father had arrived in Ranchi in 1964 to work as a pump operator with MECON Ltd., a public-sector engineering firm. Dhoni, who was born on July 7, 1981, grew up in a one-bedroom apartment adjacent to the city’s MECON Stadium.

At a random tea stall in Ranchi, while covering an India vs. South Africa Test four years ago, a conversation with the owner offered perspective. “Ranchi itna chota shehar hai, ghum fir ke aap ko koi na koi Dhoni ka pehchaan wala mil hi jaega” (Ranchi is such a small town, it is likely that you will bump into someone who knows Dhoni).

In many ways, Dhoni has been the fearless conqueror of a world that, for the longest time, made it seem like a small-town superstar in an expensive sport would always remain a myth.

Soon after winning a record-equalling fifth IPL title as the Chennai Super Kings captain, Dhoni announced that he would not be retiring and vowed to return for at least one more season if his body allowed it.

It was a “gift” to his fans even if it was “tough” to work on his body for another nine months. In the game, Dhoni is known for his relentless drive for greatness. But in retirement, he will be remembered as the common man’s hero.