MS Dhoni - The most successful captain of India

[MADDY]

Champions trophy - mini world cup irukkulla... indha varusam dhane?

isnt it scrapped??

[directhit]

yeah plans were on to have the world test championship or something like that...

[SoftSword]

PR andha article indha thread laye irukku... oru Moderator enna post panromnaavadhu padichu vakka koodadhaa lol

ovvoru mod'um sila tags vechirukkanga.. adha mattum search panni, adhu sammandhapatta post mattum dhaan padikkiraanga...
ex:

PR: sachin, swann, straight drive, etc.,
LM: sachin, tendulkar, , , etc.,
TM: MK, romance, hip, surya, pm, , etc.,
NOV: breakfast, surya, mahen, mokkai padam, etc.,

(kolai panraanga.... )

[P_R]

enna post panromnaavadhu padichu vakka koodadhaa lol

paritchai vaikka pOra maadhiri solreenga.
Tabilyee Tabilyee Yaffukku kooda thaan oru dhreat irukku....

[directhit]

ovvoru mod'um sila tags vechirukkanga.. adha mattum search panni, adhu sammandhapatta post mattum dhaan padikkiraanga...
ex:

PR: sachin, swann, straight drive, etc.,
LM: sachin, tendulkar, , , etc.,
TM: MK, romance, hip, surya, pm, , etc.,
NOV: breakfast, surya, mahen, mokkai padam, etc.,

[directhit]

paritchai vaikka pOra maadhiri solreenga.
Tabilyee Tabilyee Yaffukku kooda thaan oru dhreat irukku....

adhai udanpiravaa sagodharargal rendu peru iravu pagalaa kan muzhichu update pannitirundhainga, ungala madhiri aalunga kannu pattu ippo seendi paaka kooda aal illai!

sari appadiye CSK kkum support pannidunga marakkaama IPL la

[vanchi]

Bold and bald

A captain needs emotional intelligence and fierce personal pride to guide a team as varied as India. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has both qualities in ample measure, writes K.C. Vijaya Kumar.

The arms swivelled, the bat painted an arc that rippled with power and the ball sailed high for six. A signature Mahendra Singh Dhoni moment ushered in India's historic World Cup triumph at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium on April 2, a day that will resonate with June 25, 1983 and will forever be a special milestone when nostalgia grips an entire nation in the years to come.

The big-hit may fit in with the Dhoni persona but he has proved that he is much more than the beefy strikes and the long mane that became his identity when he first burst into the international arena. (The captain went for a new bald look immediately after the World Cup triumph.) Over the years, Dhoni has remained a malleable personality, coping with challenges, willing to change but firmly rooted to that fierce desire of winning. He has farmed the strike, strung partnerships, gambled on his instincts and backed himself and the team to the hilt.

As a captain he has stayed calm while everyone around tended to lose their heads and his biggest asset is the sheer lack of insecurity. He respects the seniors but keeps his counsel. When it comes to seniority, names like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid might spring to mind but it is a fact that even Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh have more international experience than Dhoni, but be it legendary men or his peer group, the Indian skipper has carved his own space.

The assurance was again evident after India defeated Sri Lanka and champagne moments were uncorked, tears were shed and warmth lingered. Tendulkar was chaired by his teammates and in the background Dhoni walked with a smile, letting the maestro hog the limelight. Tendulkar's 482 runs in the premier tournament proved an invaluable ally for the ‘Men in Blue' while they marched ahead.

In 2008, when Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble walked away towards their cricketing twilight, Dhoni did two gestures that spoke volumes about the man. He let an overwhelmed Ganguly lead the side briefly against the Australians and also chaired Kumble on his massive shoulders. Making the seniors feel cherished has helped him reap the dividends as the elder statesmen have clicked in unison be it in Tests or in the limited overs format under his captaincy.

Dhoni surely has a sense of perspective and the ability to trigger off a laugh has also helped him cope with the hottest seat in the Indian landscape, just below the Prime Minister's chair. In the lead-up to the World Cup, the Indian team was stationed in Bangalore for a short preparatory camp marked by rigorous practice and the odd press conferences. In one such media-interface, Sehwag and Yuvraj were addressing the press when Dhoni walked in discreetly and sat with the scribes. He then joined the television crews and tweaked the cameras amidst laughter. Later Sehwag was asked about whether he was nervous after sighting the Indian skipper among the scribes. “Not really, I am his senior,” Sehwag replied.

Dhoni's ability to be respectful and friendly with the seniors and juniors alike, has given him enough breathing space in the Indian dressing room. A few years ago, he was playing catching game after India won against England at Bangalore. As the night wore on, Dhoni chased players like Ishant Sharma and Rohit Sharma and tried to spray soft drinks on them. He was one among the boys despite being their leader but equally he has proved that while making decisions, he can be tough and keep emotions at bay. Ask R. Ashwin, who was Dhoni's trusted bowler in a crisis while playing for Chennai Super Kings but in the World Cup, the off-spinner gained limited exposure that was restricted to just two games.

Dhoni has proved that he has the heart to admit his mistakes. He said that he read the pitch at Mohali wrong. He opted to play S. Sreesanth ahead of Ashwin in the summit clash and even that shows Dhoni's ability to split a professional choice from a personal prejudice. In many matches between overs when the television audience is seeing an advertisement, Dhoni has had a stern word with Sreesanth. The speedster's antics has time and again earned Dhoni's ire but the captain truly believed that Sreesanth can add teeth to the Indian attack in the final and pencilled in his name. It is another matter that Sreesanth's performance remained lukewarm.

A captain needs emotional intelligence and fierce personal pride to guide a team as varied as India. Dhoni has both qualities in ample measure. When things were on the boil against Sri Lanka, Dhoni did the unthinkable and walked in ahead of Yuvraj at number five. Coming in with just 150 runs in the previous games of the World Cup, he displayed no sign of nerves or poor form. He hustled the singles and when the occasion demanded, unearthed that silent big-hitter residing within him. His unbeaten 91 truly became a captain's knock.

Dhoni needed that to silence the whispers about his poor run with the bat. He also needed to leave his imprint like Kapil Dev did in 1983 with that sprinting catch to send back Vivian Richards. Kapil from Haryana and Dhoni from Jharkhand have been the men who have gifted euphoria to a hungry nation craving for sporting success. Perhaps their respective upbringing in two states that have never been cricketing powerhouses in India has bred in the needed steel to cope with the high pressures of international cricket.

Dhoni often uses the word “street-smart” to define players like Praveen Kumar and Suresh Raina. Perhaps “street-smart” defines Dhoni too and he along with coach Gary Kirsten have shaped a great pathway to take Indian cricket to greater glory. “I am not the one to make big statements in press conferences,” Dhoni had said during an informal chat with journalists during India's tour of Bangladesh in early 2010.

He makes his statements on the field and there can be nothing bigger than a World Cup triumph. Add to it India's World Twenty20 victory in 2007 or leading Chennai Super Kings to an Indian Premier League and Champions League T20 title and the Dhoni-effect acquires a steady halo that will gain greater weight with anecdotes and bigger deeds in future years.
http://www.sportstaronnet.com/storie...4503101000.htm

[lawmani]

interviewer : dhoni, t20 Wc, IPL, CL, OD WC, you have got everything what is your next goal?
dhoni : well, i dont mind repeating it all again



complete interview: http://cricketnext.in.com/videos/563...ays-dhoni.html

Thalaaaa! reminds me of Avvai Shanmugi - theliya vechu theliya vechu adikaraaan

[lawmani]

Annanukku oru Su-30 MKI parcel!

[ajaybaskar]

Dhoni picks players like directors choose stars: Ramiz Raja

India produced a calm, matured performance to lift the World Cup. You have to admire the self-belief and class of Dhoni and his men, for not once did the team flinch in the eye of the storm. It was service as usual, whether Mahela was playing a classic or Sehwag and Tendulkar had been condemned to the confines of the dressing room.

India remained unfazed and ran past all hurdles with Dhoni the magnificent, clearing the flag post with a perfect straight drive to win the race for India. And for Tendulkar.

In sports you can prepare a life time and still not make the podium. Even with an astonishing body of work behind him, Tendulkar was pricked by the thought of a win less World Cup career, a heart ache that he had shared with his team and country.

Dhoni's men took upon them selves to grant him his wish, especially as he had never asked anything of them, and stuck together for mission Tendulkar. Winning the Cup was the best gift they could have thanked him with for his unfathomable contribution to Indian cricket.

A One day career even as rich and magnificent as Tendulkar's needed the topping of a World Cup win because all your one day performances mean less if you have not held the trophy in your hands. With his career now reaching climactic portions, he will look upon this win possibly as the biggest of his career as it officially stamps him a champion.

We know that Tendulkar's appetite for the game is insatiable but with the World Cup in the bag and nothing much to look forward to, he can now move on from this format to the more sedate but challenging medium of Test cricket, a platform that still needs his genius.

Speaking of genius, India could not have won the Cup without the irrepressible Dhoni. You can rave about other performers in the team but they are dwarfed by Dhoni's impact on the tournament.

Who could have known when he was picked to lead India few seasons back that hidden behind the exterior of a placid rustic face was not a simpleton from Ranchi but a shrewd sinewy competitor. Any other person belonging from such an unfashionable part of India, thrown at the deep end to lead the greats of the game, would have suffered from a seizure of low esteem.

But Dhoni is built like a fortress, impenetrable and grand. Sanjay Manjrekar told me that when he popped a question to a great Indian batsman about Dhoni's leadership and what makes him click as a leader of legends, he replied his ability to know his boundaries.

He may have never crossed his limits with Sachin or Sehwag, but that did not make him a soft captain. In fact, he was not shy to throw a challenge at his men after the South Africa choke, when in a shielded attack, he denounced the penchant of few to play more for the gallery than the cause of the team.

Captaincy beside other things is about straight talking and timing a warning to the players to wake them up to the contest. India never looked back in the tournament after that siren was played by it's captain.

Hardly ever is he paled by a defeat. He remains relaxed in searing moments of the game which helps him to think better on the job and pick right options to wriggle out of tough scenarios. How he maintains balance and brilliance between keeping and captaincy, both pressure filled punishing and thankless tasks, is worth a case study.

His famous Hindi comments at a press conference in fact sums up his calm interior: pressure lenay ka nahin denay ka hai!

He picks players like film directors do, only who will suit the script and will rally behind them to make it a successful story. In this World Cup, he made strong selection decisions that did not sit well with common logic yet he stuck to his guns and made people respect his logic.

Piyush Chawla made a come back on sound cricket grounds that a leg-spinner is not only a wicket taking option but a match winning option at home against non-Asian teams.

He introduced Ashwin, an unknown quality, to new ball bowling and had the guts to re-launch Nehra in a big semi final game against Pakistan in place of popular choice Ashwin, after entire India had turned hostile against him and his medium pace bowler for the last over disaster against South Africa.

The benching of in-demand Yousaf Pathan for Suresh Raina was another jigsaw that he solved effortlessly. Such gestures showed his uncluttered approach towards cricket, based on his own analysis and gut feeling, not influenced by popular perceptions.

A captain who thinks without a bias and knows the true value and potential of his troops is a player's dream. This trust and mind set contributes to a healthy dressing room environment which inspired India to take the leaders position at the podium.

A World Cup victory can not be weighed in any concrete measurement. How can you have a scale for pride, passion, delight or honour. India got the lot and more from Dhoni's team.

It's now it's duty to use responsibly the status of the World Champion tag and show, with grace and dignity, the leadership qualities in governing the game. It has to deal intelligently with thorny issues like the DRS, playing Pakistan, players' fatigue, managing the three formats to ensure their attractiveness and efficacy, globalisation of the sport and helping the minnows.

Even though it may have been hard on the Associate members but the decision of a 10 team World Cup is justified. Fans want quality and competition at such a high profile event and we saw quite a few mis-match ties in this WC which lowered its image.

Having said that the minnows need constant grooming and attention as disengagement will defeat the purpose of globalisation. They need nurturing and caring and should be exposed to big events only after they have registered an improvement. Getting bashed at world events would not only dent them mentally but it would be bad advertisement for the game of cricket.

Pakistan at this WC may have returned home empty handed but it won the hearts of it's people. The players were greeted like heroes because Pakistan became one and united under them.

The World also got to see the strength of Indo-Pak contest. All those people in positions who were cold and indifferent towards it were seeing queuing up to use the occasion to cash in.

The governments, the media and the ICC had been given enough evidence in the past also, of the enormous strength of Indo-Pak tussle, to know that uncoupling the two could mean a turbulent world and a colourless cricket calendar.

Yet, all of them allowed the most engaging cricket rivalries to get stuck by petty politics. To me that game at Mohali was the heart of the World Cup more than the final at Mumbai.