New Delhi: What makes Mahendra Singh Dhoni tick? Is it his incredible batting that sends perfectly pitched yorkers into orbit, or lightning glovework behind the stumps? Does it have anything to do with his numerous brand endorsements that many a Bollywood A-lister would envy? Or is it simply his rise from a modest background to the pantheon of greatness that endears him to a cricket-crazy nation?
Sports journalist C Rajshekhar Rao tries to unravel all this and more in Dhoni, an unauthorised biography by Ocean Paperbacks, by speaking to his coaches from junior days to former cricketers as well as near and dear ones from his hometown of Ranchi.
"I’m not his biggest fan," the author makes it clear at the outset during the launch of his book here. But he is just as intrigued by the flamboyant Indian captain as we are. “Anyone and everyone I meet have been impressed by at least one of his many facets.”
As the jacket says, Dhoni takes readers close to their hero without eulogising him. It traces Dhoni’s career from a modest beginning to his development as a cricketer. The author tackles his personality differently by talking to people who have helped him through the years.
With legendary spinner Bishan Singh Bedi and former Indian batsman Ajay Jadeja at the panel, and a book on the Indian captain by their side, the discussion naturally veers onto leadership. While Bedi articulates the term by quoting some of the greatest to have played the game, Jadeja jumps into the discussion by pronouncing him the best that India can have, admittedly to stop a few tongues from wagging.
“The demands and the amount of media scrutiny today are totally different from what it used to be,” Jadeja says. “Dhoni understands that. He seems to be the most sensible of the lot in the current set-up.”
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