I admire Dhoni more than any sportsperson in India. It’s not just because of his success as a captain or because of the fact that he is the most valuable cricketer alive. More than all these I admire him for the transformation he has undergone. Most of you will recall the Dhoni during his first matches for India. The long haired, aggressive and clunky youngster; nobody could have ever imagined moving forward he will become the cornerstone of Team India. But things changed, more importantly Dhoni changed. The long hair is a thing of the past. The new hairstyle and the matured looks he sports are admirable. The shots are still gawky but no longer people care about it as he is giving performance after performance. He is branded as the representative of new Indian generation which is a synonym of coolness and fearlessness.
Ernst & Young released its report on growth stories of smaller Indian cities with the title ‘The Dhoni Effect’. Some say he was at the right place at the right time. It could be true to an extent. India needed a sports icon who could symbolize its recent growth story. Who else could have been a better fit than Dhoni who is young, stylish and who has small town boy image. May be ‘Brand Dhoni. is a phenomenon which is the result of several factors like power of cricket, India’s growth story and many others. But you cannot take away the credit from him for living up to the expectations of an entire nation. The way he have conducted himself, both on and off the field is commendable. From changing his looks to looking matured and cool at the same time, he has fared as well as anyone could have demanded from him. For a commercial industry that requires pegs to hang their laptop-generated-marketing initiatives on, Dhoni is a logical leader, especially when a secular India has declared cricket as its official religion.
How often would you come across a youngster who was under lot of pressure to perform and persist in the beginning of his career and was able to pull it off? Today’s youth, irrespective of their field of work, ought to learn a lot from this young man about career management and level-headedness. I would like to take a sentence from Wikipedia which describes Dhoni in the following words. ‘Initially recognized as an extravagantly flamboyant and destructive batsman, Dhoni has come to be regarded as one of the coolest heads to captain the Indian ODI side.’ Now this is real career management.
