Game lessons: The helicopter way of life

It was almost preordained that someone should break out of India’s hinterland and prove to be the best skipper Team India ever had.

An economically-stronger India and a cricket board rendered fabulously wealthy by an emerging middle class with enormous spending power was also to be reflected in the brave new team of the new millennium which stood up with newfound mental strength. A natural corollary of this was the internationalisation of Dhoni, a dreamer from small-town India who made it to the very top as an unconventional leader and thinker and swashbuckling batsman and efficient stumper.

It would have been a stretch of imagination to believe a player from rustic Ranchi could tune his game into such fashionable mode while still retaining his gut instincts that made him such an unusual captain. He was not the one for long team meetings. He was the earthy type who believed cricket was played in the middle, certainly with the brain. For Dhoni, the outcome was everything.

Like the McAloo Tikki replacing the Big Mac, Dhoni became India’s primary cricket personality who was at ease with media conferences. He could also outdo the experts in discussing some of the speediest objects on Earth — zippy motorcycles, fast cars. And yet, as skipper he was a different personality. Dhoni kept himself clear of groupism and socialising to the minimum. Why, he even celebrated his wedding as a low-key private event to which only his closest team buddies were invited. Disdainful of the ubiquitous cell phone, he would invariably fail to pick it up even when a BCCI president was calling. The number of missed calls on his mobile is legendary.  

Also, cricketers are known to worship statistics. In this too, Dhoni may be an exception. Who else would willingly walk away after leading in 199 ODIs? Emotional detachment is an amazing aspect of his personality, which stands out in contrast to his flamboyance at the batting crease.

Take the stroke he invented for the evolving world of limited-overs cricket – the helicopter shot. This wristy, even agricultural stroke was a masterly answer to the so-called unhittable quality of a yorker, a ball that was supposed to crush the toes of the batsman. It could only have come from Dhoni, a batsman who didn’t believe he could be subdued in any format of the game. Others invented the shovel shot, the scoop over ‘keeper, the reverse sweep. But there was something sneaky about those shots. Like Kevin Pietersen’s reverse hit, Dhoni’s helicopter shot was something that was played in the bowler’s face. It was as much a positive statement as a cricket stroke. And to be enigmatic is also an Indian trait, one that seems to mark the celebs more. Dhoni is no exception. For all his known characteristics like resplendence at the crease, instinctive ways as captain and detachment as leader, Dhoni could also be a puzzle. Take his manner of retirements — it is as if he likes to fade out of the limelight rather t
han take a dashing bow in the same spotlight that so many seek. He retired from Test cricket through a note to the cricket board. It was ditto with the limited-overs captaincy for Indian cricket’s ‘winningest’ captain ever.

Dhoni’s sporting gesture in being willing to play on under Virat Kohli exemplifies his spirit as well as how he would like to shape the transition. It wouldn’t be Dhoni if he doesn’t do it with the same grace with which he stepped down from the pedestals.

If controlled flamboyance was at one end of the spectrum of his personality, self-effacement was the other end and it might well have had the last say in his decision to step down.