Lucky

It was summer of 2000 when the monster of match-fixing arrived on Indian soil. It costed the cricketing career of some big names of world and Indian cricket. That included the all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar, classy and wristy Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja (Who till then was the blue eyed boy of Indian cricket). But more importantly it gulped the career of Nayan Mongia, who undoubtedely till then had been the best bet for India to keep the gloves behind the wicket (Although his consistency as a batsman was under severe criticism). BCCI started the experimentation to try all wicket keepers available in domestic circuit. Likes of Ajay Ratra, Sameer dighe, Parthiv Patel, Deep Dasgupta, M S K Prasad, Dinesh Karthik and Vijay Dahiya all were given ample opportunities to settle themselves down. But all of them wasted the golden opportunities one by one. 'The Wall' was also tried for some time particularly around the 2003 world cup. As he was not a recognized wicket keeper and his batting was also getting affected due to fatigue, He couldn't hold the important post for long time.

It was the season of 2004-05 when a dusky and long haired boy from Jharkhand was selected in Indian team as WK for Bangladesh tour. He debuted in ODI with a duck and was unimpressive as a batsman in his initial innings but again got chance for Pakistan series. It was his fifth match when he left his mark on map of Indian cricket with a score of 148 (Highest by any Indian WK in ODIs) against Pakistan. His Inning of 183 not out (the inning rewrote many records) against Sri Lanka in Jaipur made him a house hold name in cricket crazy nation. Then started the time of good fortune for the young man. He got a reputation of a good WK and a batsman capable of towering huge sixes. Young generation of India started emulating him especially for his hair style and the small town guy got praise from all sections of societies and high profile people all around the world. Even Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf praised him for his cricketing skills and advised not to cut short his hairs as that suited him very well. He was flooded with endorsements and the brands promoted by him were doing very well. The spree continued till 2007 where a mega opportunity was waiting for him. He was appointed captain of Indian cricket team for inaugural T-20 world cup. In the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, he was preferred over the likes of Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh. Midas touch continued and he did what no body was able to do since great Kapil Dev. He lifted the T-20 WC trophy and got a splendid welcome travelling from Mumbai airport to Wankhede stadium. His journey of great fortune didn't stop there and inevitably he got the charge of Indian ODI and test team after Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble. Over the next 3 years he achieved so many successes that none of captains in history of cricket were able to do. India became top ranked test team and lifted the ODI world cup trophy after a gap of 28 years. His club 'Chennai Super Kings' became champion of two successive IPL seasons and even won champions league T-20. He was declared the highest paid and earning cricketer on the globe by forbes. This is indeed the fairy tale epitomizing the captain kool Mr. Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Unlike soccer where captain has little role to play on field, Cricket is a game where captain has a crucial role to play in situation of strategy failure. Unless until he have a great team or leadership qualities, Captain has to take a gamble or depends on luck to favour. There has been a great debate over LUCK factor. But it is acceptable that this accompanies certain people and people are born with great luck. Some people are born to be leader. People have proved themselves by leading in exemplary ways, No need to mention the names.

Now what is the secret behind Dhoni's mega success. Is he indeed an intelligent man with great cricketing skills or a lucky boy? All the top cricket analysts , former players and captains from all around world have praised him for his leadership qualities. But the recent debacle of Indian cricket team (In the absence of top players) on England tour in all three formats  and performance of his club in champions league doesn't go along with any of the titles bestowed upon him. Fact is that he is indeed a lucky man and big gambler who till recent had enjoyed the splendid performance of a great team. Some facts are below:

• He was made captain of T-20 cricket team on recommendations of master blaster (Not a natural choice of selection committee) and over Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh (Both were tipped to be captain of Indian team after big guns). Sehwag was going through the bad patch as a batsman and Yuvraj was advertised having attitude problem. Also all top guns like Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly had declined to play in T-20 cricket. This was a matter of sheer luck and had nothing to do with his credentials as batsman or a player that time.
• In the T-20 WC final, he gave last over to Joginder Sharma instead of Harbhajan Singh. Misbah played the stupidest shot by scooping the delivery and not going for straight shot which surely would have earned the winning shot for neighbor country. This was indeed a Gambler's choice & opposition player's mistake and nothing to do with the leadership qualities as no wise captain would have done this.
• He has been a big failure in terms of batting. A big opportunist who never will come up in batting order in difficult situations but prefer to when all things are going smoothly and in favor of India. And forget the test matches, no body think he deserves to be in playing eleven of Indian team.
• He was awarded man of the match in WC final 2011. No body will deny that it was Gautam Gambhir whose innings of 97 brought India out of crisis. But again luck favored him and his name was written in history. 
• Above all things, He has got a great team. He got young players nurtured by Sourav Ganguly and a test team fully confident under Kumble's leadership. In Dhoni's tenure as captain, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Zaheer khan had been in best of forms. All of them had won the matches for India single handed and had been instrumental in India's many wins. Dhoni's leadership qualities had no effects in grooming or nurturing the talents of these great players and giving confidence to them. They would have performed in the same manner under the captaincy of any other player.

Some may agree and most will not agree with points mentioned above. Fact is also that i have always adjudged him critically and for me he had been highly disappointing as a batsman. But i am firm on the fact that he is overhyped by media. He is neither a good batsman nor a great captain. But it is also true that history can't be ignored and that will always go against my views on MSD.