MS DHONI : THE MAN, THE LEGEND

Cricket is the most celebrated sports in India and M.S. Dhoni is arguably the most loved and admired sportsperson across the country. Its hard to believe or recall any other sportsperson receiving the amount of love and affection this man has received over the years. What is it that separates him from some of the greats of this game and what has he done to connect to a billion hearts across this country and beyond borders. The simple answer would be his humble approach towards life and the way he has carried his stardom and fanfare, which led people to believe that they own a part of him and that some part of MS Dhoni resides in them. However, its much more than that, its some of the most life defining lessons that this man has given us over the years and we all aspire to take some or all of it in our lives.

 

Coming from a humble background, MS Dhoni always understood the values and virtues of being grounded. The first and the most important life lesson that this man gives us is to be a gentle human being, to understand what life is all about and to be able to rejoice it with all our heart and yet stay completely modest of all the vagaries of fortune that life offers us. To understand that success, money, fame are all just a part of life and not the LIFE in itself. To remember that we are all mortal beings and just a traveler in this journey called life and to act, behave and treat people the way we would like the world to reciprocate to us.

 

As an athlete or otherwise, one of the most critical traits that Dhoni demonstrates is how to have control over your emotions and how to stay calm, focused and be in the moment, neither thinking ahead of or beyond ourselves. This helps you to think and act with maturity and with patience when the situation demands. Often the best decisions in life are the ones taken with a very relaxed and confident mind. Not necessarily, everytime you will get the desired results, but the possibility of getting a favourable result would be much higher. A calm head can do wonders to the way we lead our lives manifested by our decisions.

 

MS Dhoni personifies leadership. Be it a cricket team, an organization or an institution, a leader is the one who defines the vision, acts with integrity to bring that into reality, inspires and exudes confidence in his team and ensures that they try to the best of their abilities with courage and passion to achieve the goal. Dhoni has been instrumental in grooming his players and ensuring that they perform to the best of their abilities handling every situation with a relaxed and easy mind, a testimony to the fact that he has won 5 IPL championships. Leadership is a critical aspect of an organisation’s or a team’s success both on and off the field.

 

Failure is an imminent part of life, but the way you handle it defines you as a person. MS Dhoni has certainly not seen much of it, however there has been instances when he has been down and one such incident comes to the fore is during the ban on CSK for two years. Dhoni joined the Pune team and he was removed from captaincy almost immediately. He handled that with grace and dignity and ensured that he gave his best even just as a player in ensuring the team’s success. CSK’s ban was lifted in 2018 and the very year MS Dhoni led CSK won the championship. This is a prime example of the character and the integrity the man possesses and how he came out of it to be a stronger version of himself. Since then CSK has won 3 championships in a span of 6 years. Even at the age of 42, he has the hunger to go out and perform. Failure thus is a stepping stone to something bigger, if taken with the right attitude and the right will.

 

These are just a few traits of the man this country so dearly loves and adores. There is much more to MS Dhoni as a human being and it is up to us how we can learn and get inspired from this small town boy who is now the heartthrob of a billion Indians.