Biography of M.S. Dhoni

M.S. Dhoni 

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (M.S. Dhoni) commonly known as Captain Cool of India, was a captain of Indian Cricket Team for 10 long years in limited-overs cricket, and also managed to handle the cap of Indian Test Team since 2008-2014. An attacking right-handed middle-order batsman and wicket-keeper, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest finishers in limited-overs cricket. His Helicopter Shot is what every cricket lovers die to witness. World cricket recognizes his skills in wicket keeping, as he stumps the batsman within a blink of an eye.

Origin

MS Dhoni was born on July 7, 1981, in the city of Ranchi which is located in Jharkhand. He studied in DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir. He was the youngest sibling. His father was a Pump Operator on a cricket pitch and his mother was the homemaker. Today, though he is considered as one of the best Cricketer, at times he never thought of playing cricket. He used to play football and badminton at the state level and in some of the clubs, what an irony !!! He was not so good with his studies.

Career

Dhoni was a great football player in his childhood he was a goalkeeper of his school team, however, his PT sir insisted him to play for his team as wicketkeeper. And that’s where his goalkeeping skills were exposed to the world. He started playing regularly for his school team and emerged as a star keeper and batsmen. After school, he also played for Bihar cricket team in Ranjit Trophy. He made his debut on 23rd December 2004 versus Bangladesh but fate was still away from him. He got out on a duck, his failure continued for some matches, but as it is said, nothing in this world is permanent, Dhoni got his first success when he was selected for Tri-series between India-Kenya-Pakistan. MS proved himself by playing a magnificent inning throughout the series. On-Time Captain Sourav Ganguly was impressed with his game and accepted him as a full-time player in playing XI.

Ticket Collector to Trophy Collector

Dhoni gave an entrance exam at Railway for the post of TTE, luckily he got selected and was placed at the Kharagpur Railway Station. He used to work with full dedication and never gave his seniors a chance to downgrade him. With his job, he continued his cricket passion by playing for Bihar and subsequently Jharkhand Ranji Team. This continued for a while and suddenly there was a huge turning point in his life, in 2004 while playing for Jharkhand Ranji Team, Prakash Poddar(an associate of BCCI Team) picked him up for India squad in 2004-05. He became the part of the Indian Test team as well. In the inaugural T20 World Cup, Dhoni was named as the Captain of Team India and India won the world cup. He soon took over the ODI captaincy and slowly took over the Test Captaincy from Anil Kumble. Dhoni took India to become the No 1 Test Team, won the ODI World Cup for India in 2011, won Champion Trophy as well. He has now retired from Test Cricket and left the captaincy of ODI and T20. Dhoni has scored over 15000 international runs.

Awards and Achievements

Dhoni is the recipient of many prestigious awards. As a captain his first achievement was T20 World Cup, 2007, then in 2008, Commonwealth Bank Series. Under his captaincy, Team India was able to win six consecutive Asia Cup since 2010. He also bought ICC Champion Trophy home in 2013. Team India was ranked No: 1 in ODI’s, Tests and T20’s under his captaincy. India lifts the ICC World Cup, 2011, after 28 years. He was the only captain who won two consecutive CLT20 and IPL Cup. In 2009, he is the recipient of India’s third-highest civilian award, ‘The Padma Shri’. According to the statistics, there was a total of 453 captains in cricket but MS Dhoni is the only one to win all the ICC Trophies. Time magazine included MSD in its annual Time 100 list as one of the “Most Influential People in the World.” The Indian Territorial Army conferred the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel to Dhoni on 1 November 2011. He is the second Indian cricketer after Kapil Dev to have received this honour.

Charity

MSD is known for his charity as well, there are very few instances where the public comes to know about his charity as he likes to keep it secret. Some of his famous charities include his World Cup 2011 bat which he sold in an auction for ₹72 lakhs and donated the amount to one of the orphan houses. His released biopic M.S. Dhoni – The Untold Story which was a blockbuster at the box office, earned him a good amount of royalty but he didn’t cease that in his personal locker rather donated it to the orphan centres. He also donated ₹20 Lakhs to Indian Army in order to help wounded soldiers.

Learnings

• The Biggest Learning which Dhoni gave us was to be like a wolf even if you are the king of the jungle.

• Never Give up, at least up to your last breath, you never know how the last over (opportunity) goes and you might hit a Six on the last ball.

• MSD taught us to be a Leader and not to be a Boss, because “when the failure occurs leader takes it up when success comes he gives that to his team”.

• Winning or losing doesn’t matter, what matters is your attitude towards the same afterwards.

• Always carry a smile and handful of sportsmen spirit while entering the playground, that’s what MS does, that’s what a successful leader does.