Avan avvalavu uyaram maadhiri theriyala. I thought he would be just below 6'.Quote:
Originally Posted by ajithfederer
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Avan avvalavu uyaram maadhiri theriyala. I thought he would be just below 6'.Quote:
Originally Posted by ajithfederer
:lol:
TamizhanAgapattavan idhaiyellAm anubavichu dhAn AgaNum. Welcome to tamil citizenship, MSD!
nadodigal arasiyalvaadhi dhaan nyabagatthukku varaar...
anju nimisatthukku munnaala dhaanda photo edutthaanga... adhukkulla cut out vechutaanga... :lol:
idhai Election munnAdi release paNNi irundhA DMK return to power kanfaarmednga. Unfortunately, electionkappuram release paNdrAnga
CSK down, seetee for MSD
- Ranchi’s son is Chennai’s favourite pin-up boy
May 22: He’s played a captain’s knock of an unbeaten 70 off 40 deliveries for Chennai Super Kings in Bangalore, against home team Royal Challengers at the 69th IPL match today. But lost out to the Gayle hurricane.
Yet Chennai cheers for Dhoni. On TV, he has been grooving in his yellow team sweatshirt, with Tamil paatis (grandmoms) in nine-yard saris and dark shades, young bike boys and girls practising Bharatnatyam moves, all blowing the whistle. He’s blown the whistle with the boys in the dressing room. And then he’s said in faultless Tamil: “Chennai Super Kings ku whistle podu. (Blow the whistle for Chennai Super Kings).”
It is Tamilspeak for seetee baja ke, Chennai equivalent of the Mexican wave. Though the defending champs have had a roller-coaster innings in IPL-4, they are riding high on Whistle Podu (Blow the Whistle), the one-minute music video that celebrates “our boy” M.S. Dhoni. “Enga thala Dhoniku periya whistle adinga (Whistle aloud for our leader Dhoni)” goes a line in the song by Arvind & Jaishankar.
Chennaiites are watching it on TV, humming it, joining the Whistle Podu community page on Facebook and downloading it as ringtones.
Chennai’s Thoraipakkam resident and 26-year-old software engineer Raghavendran confesses he is an IPL fanatic, thanks to Dhoni.
“It’s a privilege to have him as captain,” he said. And what about Dhoni in Whistle Podu? “His accent is pretty decent,” the Tamilian endorses.
Dhoni transcends the so-called North-South divide. “IPL stands on how strongly people cheer for city teams. With cricketers sans regional affiliation, the challenge is to align them to the values of cities through personality transformation. In IPL, Dhoni’s a Chennai boy,” says Mudar Patherya, who wrote Wills Book of Excellence: Cricket and Penguin Book of Cricket Lists.
“Mahi stands for mental strength that appeals to Chennaiites,” says Souvik Misra, executive creative director, Bates 141.
What does Ranchi say about this southern hijack? “Ranchi does not have an IPL team, so it doesn’t matter which city he plays for,” says Yogesh Kaushal (23), Old Hazaribagh Road resident. “Chennai should be proud Dhoni plays for them,” adds friend Anand Kanoria.
The message from Ranchi is loud and clear. He may be your pin-up boy, Chennai, but he’s our boy.
Dhoni and captaincy
ESPNSTAR.com columnist Suresh Menon says that no Indian captain’s job has looked as secure as Dhoni’s.
During the third Test against the West Indies in July, Mahendra Singh Dhoni will turn 30. Since he took over from Anil Kumble, Dhoni has combined flair and certainty, and has been secure enough to stand aside while others have led.
This is unusual for Indian captains, most of whom are constantly made aware of the temporary nature of their assignment, and reminded by current events if not history that one false move will see them sidelined.
Not surprisingly, it is often seen as the second most difficult job in the country, the uncertainty of tenure alone causing premature balding and graying. Selectors have often contributed to this, keeping captains on edge, playing off one against the other, and forcing them into Mephistophelian compromises.
India had played international cricket for three decades before the first long-serving captain was given the reign. But even Tiger Pataudi, who led at 21, had to face the chairman's casting vote twice. He survived on the first occasion, and made way for Ajit Wadekar on the second.
Since Dhoni took over, three men have led India. Virender Sehwag, who is three years older, Suresh Raina (he led on the Zimbabwe tour while many seniors were rested), and Gautam Gambhir. Raina, 25 this year, will have to establish himself in the team over this season before his captaincy can be taken seriously. Gambhir is nearly the same age as Dhoni, and although he leads the team to the West Indies for the one-day series, can only be a stop-gap leader as long as Dhoni maintains his form and fitness.
If a natural successor to Dhoni four or five years down the line can be seen now, it is Virat Kohli. He is only 22 and yet to play Test cricket, but he has both an obvious toughness and tactical nous that make him stand out. Also, he seems to enjoy the responsibility of leading a side, which is a trait he shares with Dhoni, and one which is common to many great captains.
He has picked up a reputation for enjoying the good things of life, but that is something that can be corrected. India lost a potentially major captain when a similar reputation stuck to Ravi Shastri's name. Shastri might have been a great captain, but lost out in the West Zone versus North Zone politics which was sustained by his lifestyle often exaggerated in the media.
Kohli will have to learn from history even while realizing that a couple of generations after Shastri, society - and the selector - is probably more forgiving.
All that is many years into the future, although grooming a youngster is never a bad idea. Pataudi was groomed, Shastri was groomed, Dhoni was groomed.
England have decided to split their cricket captaincy three ways, and India, among the pioneers to split the job in two, will watch that experiment with interest. Dhoni is the most overworked of the Indian players, and sometime in the future he might withdraw from the T20 captaincy (even if he continues as player).
Dhoni's reputation rests on his man-management abilities and his risk-taking temperament. He has well-honed instincts and when he occasionally gets it wrong he feels secure enough to admit it. "We read the wicket wrong," he confessed after a World Cup game recently.
It will be interesting to see whom Dhoni himself grooms as his successor. This is not part of his job description, and in fact very few captains have even attempted it. But somehow one feels Dhoni is different.
Dhoni setting an example for other skippers
Sunil Gavaskar
Three teams in the playoffs have never won the IPL and they will go flat out to try and upset the defending champions Chennai Super Kings and stop them from winning another title. The skipper of the Chennai Super Kings is one who knows what winning is all about.
Under him the Super Kings have not only won the IPL but the Champions League too and then his most recent win has been the World Cup so he is indeed a winning captain and will be brimming with confidence. What distinguishes him from the others is his readiness to take on responsibility especially when the going is tough.
So when the team needs a push in the scoring rate, he will be the one to walk out ahead of someone who has been in good form but may not have his range of shots and the daring to play them that the skipper posseses. His example of showing no emotions is being followed by the other skippers in the IPL though some of them fail to control themselves like Dhoni does.
Still it is a good sign for it will mean that youngsters who are nervous about playing such a pressure-filled tournament can make mistakes and won't be bawled out by their captains on the field. The skippers are under immense pressure too since they are invariably the highest paid in their teams and so are expected to work miracles whenever the team is in trouble.
The new eliminator system for this year's tournament gives teams finishing in the top two another crack at getting into the finals. The only hitch is that the winner of the second semi-finals will have to play the finals the next day and if there's been a bit of a niggle for a key player then there is no time for him to be treated and so he may well have to play with that little injury. Didn't we see that in last year's finals when Tendulkar had that nasty split in the webbing but still played and in fact stopped some fierce shots with that injured hand.
The Mumbai Indians would have breathed a sigh of relief once the Kings XI Punjab could not raise themselves for one big final effort and this reprieve may well work in their favour. However they have to sort out their batting line-up since they seem to be wasting some players by having them too low down the order.
If there is a team that is determined to win, it is the Kolkata Knight Riders. Their skipper Gambhir is so charged up with the possibility that he is taking no chances and doing it all himself. He has a good bowling variety at his disposal which has made the task of defending small totals better than earlier.
The fourth team in the playoffs is a team that is having such a good time off the field that it is being reflected on the field too. There is perhaps no happier team in the IPL than the Royal Challengers of Bangalore and that joy is also being conveyed to their followers.
It is going to be close alright and just the kind of finish that the IPL wanted.
MSD is the most marketable Asian sport star, according to London-based SportsPro magazine.
MS Dhoni beats Rafael Nadal and Kobe Bryant - Sport - DNA
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