MS Dhoni and the story of small town India.

It was around the fag end of 2004 and a rookie cricketer with a free flowing mane was making his debut in international cricket against Bangladesh. The young man had created quite a buzz around the cricketing circles with his exploits in the India A side. Naturally, there was a faint hype around this wicket keeper batsman when he had made the progression to the highest level. Unfortunately, his first few outings in the national side had nothing to write about. But what caught the eye of many pundits and cricket aficionados was an ugly technique which was just not seen or expected from a proper batsman and that too in the international level. As a mad cricket buff, I used to gobble up every small article and feature on cricket and a major chunk of our conversations in school used to be about the game! We were the budding cricketing analysts and dissectors of the matches. Conversations used to veer from what and what not a player ought to have done in the match of the preceding day. Talk had started about the technique of the player in question, newspapers were writing him off, experts were raising doubts over his temperament and the general talk around the street was "What sort of a batsman is he with such an under developed technique? He is plain lucky to be here. He will not survive for long". Mahendra Singh Dhoni had started the debates right from his entry!

Match after match, Dhoni was failing with the bat and his keeping too did not appear too convincing. What looked like one last opportunity against arch rivals Pakistan was taken up with open hands by the man and the way he carted the bowlers en route to his 148 is still fresh in my mind. Dhoni had announced his arrival on the big stage, but what caught the eye of most yet again was his unconventional, unorthodox and as some said 'out of the zone' technique. To a cricketing world which was used to seeing batsmen following a set batting manual, this was like an anti thesis. Dhoni did not have the mastery and class of Tendulkar, the technical brilliance of Dravid, the elegance and flair of Laxman or the delicate timing of Ganguly. In those days, we were used to reading poetic eulogies about the fabulous talent in the Indian batting line up. But what could they possibly write about a batsman who bludgeoned the ball mercilessly with brute strength and for whom elegance, flair, artistry were alien words? 

His century against Pakistan notwithstanding, people still had doubts over Dhoni's longevity as a cricketer with such a strange technique. But he trudged along piling up the runs. His unforgettable 183 against Sri Lanka was a brutal assault on the hapless bowlers and in a short span of time, Mahendra Singh Dhoni had become a sensation with his stylish mane copied all over the nation. Yes, India had got a new hero. Till here, the narrative is predictable- A cricketer hits one or two centuries and he becomes a star and this was seen multiple times in the preceding years. But hang on for a minute. There is a slight twist in the tale here. He was not a cricketer from the swanky clubs of a metropolis or a big city. He rose up from the hinterland, the cricketing backwaters of Ranchi, a city which was unheard of in the cricketing circles. To make the cut hailing from such a background is a bloody good story indeed!

The Dhoni story after he became a star is well known of course. He became the captain of the side, won many tournaments, won 2 world cups, broke records after records and many controversies too followed which resulted in him being criticised and despised heavily. Yet he remained a colossal figure in world cricket and naturally when a biopic on him was released, I was excited. The reason for this was more due to the curiosity to know about his early years and by the time the movie reached its culminating stages with that epochal six against Sri Lanka to win us the World cup, it was clear in my mind that this is not the story of only Dhoni, but of small town India too, a part of India that had burst into the big stage, which had broken off the cocoon and emerged out, a burning metamorphosis to a larger spectrum.

Why I mentioned about Dhoni's technique in the starting stages was to draw your attention to the fact that technique is not sacrosanct. In the rustic hinterlands where Dhoni grew up, it is more about the joy of playing the game rather than how it is played that takes precedence. When raw, uninhibited talent gets unleashed with the right intent and honing, it can take one to big heights. Of course, technique plays a vital role but a player like Dhoni might have got lost to the world if he was in city environs with textbook following coaches. What propelled Dhoni to dizzying heights was the place he grew up in- an India that is unpretentious, that does not judge you, that allows you to be yourself, that is far away from the rat race, that allows you to take joy in the small things of life, that is free from the clutter of huge population, and that has the right touch of modernity along with classical values. 

Dhoni hitting that winning run with a massive six to win us the 2011 world cup and that intensity in his eyes as he watches the ball soar over the stands is something that every Indian has watched a hundred times. It is an unforgettable, historic shot. It is also the shot that reminds us of the resurgence of a young, unexplored India. With the advent of technology and social media, the gulf between the bigger cities and the hinterlands is reducing. The confidence and the daring attitude of the smaller parts of India is palpable, the diffidence of the masses to face upto the big city people is replaced by a steely conviction in their abilities. There is an acceptance of the rawness that one gets to see in the smaller centres and this is being used as a trump card. In a globalised world where there is more value now for talent than sophistication, people have understood that one just needs to bring out the talent to the fore to succeed. You need not play by the rules and strictures always, there is a market out there for your unorthodox, unconventional ways too and this is what the smaller India has embraced. To reach a destination, there is no rule that one needs to always follow the already laid out path or the one shown by Google Maps. There might be a different, unknown route to the destination and the will to take it is what matters because in the end, it does not matter how you reach the destination, but reaching it is important! Like Dhoni who had sceptics all along mocking at his technique, there will always be people who look at you with a snigger if you are on a different path. But Dhoni is regarded now as the best finisher in world cricket and he has played continuously for more than 10 years! So where is the question of technique now? People coming up from the interiors are accepting their differences compared to the big city lads, they know their strengths and play by them. Their survival instincts and adaptability are better and this is the driving force for the high number of talents springing up from unknown places.

If you are different from the crowd, accept it with an open mind because that is what can be the X-factor that separates you from the rest and that makes you unique. There is no compulsion to follow what everyone else is doing. If you have the confidence that you can reach the destination through your own unique way, then you may ignore the naysayers in your path because they will always have something to say regardless of what you do. Coming from a small town is not a hindrance; it can actually be a blessing in disguise. Of course, there will not be the myriad opportunities in a small place. But far away from the hullabaloo of the metropolis, you will have the chance to develop that one thing that can make you stand out from the herd. Undistorted nature has many things to teach us and when we give an ear and eye to that, it will be productive in the longer run. Far from the artificiality and fakeness of a big city life, it allows you to be rooted and teaches you so many things naturally that one tends to have an edge on the ones from the metros. All that is required is a deeper understanding of these intricate details so that these hidden and oft ignored things are tapped at the right time to fetch results. 

I have grown up in a small town and understand deeply about how things work there. Watching Dhoni's story on screen found a clear resonance and I could relate so well to the narrative. It urged me to go back in time and have a relook at what actually made Mahendra Singh Dhoni tick. His is not a usual story, it is the one laced with lots of climbing against the odds to make a mark. Getting noticed playing your cricket for a state like Jharkhand or Bihar is in itself an achievement and the way he built his story brick by brick to zoom ahead like a phoenix is a remarkable inspiration. Come over to the smaller towns and villages and you can see hundreds of young boys who can make the purists sit up in their graves with the way they bat, but there is a lot of potential and rugged talent lurking around in these places. There are thousands of Dhonis out there who can be moulded and channelized in the right way to make our country a sporting super power. We rue about our lack of Olympic medal prospects, but some untapped talents with oodles of potential like Dhoni are right there in the backwaters of India. Identify them, nurture them and you can see tremendous change in our medals tally by the next fifteen years.

This is not a write up to glorify or venerate Dhoni. But in his story, there is a clear cut indication of the rise of the smaller parts of India. This is an attempt to bring to the fore that aspect of the current scenario. A pump house operator's son hailing from a nondescript town becomes the most successful and arguably one of the best captains of Team India. When he reached those unparalleled heights, people forgot the back story focussing only on the glitz and the success. But in hindsight, the early story is what is worthy of emulation. There is a Dhoni in each one of us who live or have lived in small places and he is the trailblazer in our stories. Thank you Mahendra Singh Dhoni for establishing yourself as the inspiration. Watch out for the small town India that is producing unseen helicopter shots that are going out of the park! Unconventionality and originality are the new buzzwords in a country of a million diversities.