No Tickets Please: Indian Cricket Super Hero Dhoni

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MS Dhoni, who led Chennai Super Kings to a record fifth IPL title on Monday, could have spent his life checking tickets at Indian Railways if he had listened to his father.

Instead, he followed his dream and became one of the most loved players in his cricket-mad country, second only to the admiration of the ‘little champion’ Sachin Tendulkar.

In a career that spanned two decades, he was India’s most successful skipper and even after retiring from international cricket in 2020, he has had a great Indian summer, still playing in the IPL.

His journey, which was made into a Bollywood biopic, began in a cramped one-bedroom government flat in the eastern city of Ranchi, provided by his pump attendant father’s employer.

As a boy, Dhoni was passionate about sports and honed his skills by playing tennis ball cricket and borrowing rackets and other equipment from friends.

At his father’s insistence, he took a job with the Indian Railways, but a busy routine between collecting tickets and playing cricket eventually got him released.

In 2004, he made his debut for India, and in 2007 he took over from Rahul Dravid as India’s one-day captain, winning the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa that year.

In 2008, he became Test captain and won two home series against Australia, and in 2011 he famously sealed victory in the 50-over World Cup in India with a massive six.

Along the way – constantly changing hairstyles from shaggy to spiky to shaved – several endorsements made Dhoni one of the highest-paid athletes in world sports, earning an estimated $31 million in 2015.

But he stunned the cricketing world by quitting the five-day game in 2014 after winning as skipper with 27 wins from 60 Tests.

He stepped down as the limited-overs captain in 2017 on the pretext of grooming Virat Kohli as manager, but continued to play a big role in the team’s decision-making process.

His last appearance for India was in their semi-final loss to New Zealand in the 2019 ODI World Cup.

He then briefly served in the Army Reserve unit, where he is a lieutenant colonel, before announcing his international retirement.

But he didn’t quit the IPL, using unparalleled tactical insight and experience to guide the franchise he has captained since the league’s inception in 2008 to 10 finals and now five wins.

“There is no CSK without Dhoni and no Dhoni without CSK,” N. Srinivasan, the industrialist who owns the franchise, famously said after the previous win in 2021.

Tough and always unruffled, Dhoni has many nicknames such as ‘Captain Cool’ and ‘Thala’ which means ‘leader’ in Tamil, the language of Chennai.

IPL fans go wild when he steps in to bat and cheer every shot – and not just the fans of Chennai but all the other franchises.

Excitement has been heightened this year because of expectations that – at 41, with a dodgy knee and no longer the power he had with the bat – this season could be Dhoni’s last.

But he has kept fans guessing when he said last week that he will hold out for the 2024 IPL auctions in December to make his final decision.

“I will always be with CSK, either in playing form or sitting somewhere,” he said.

“I really don’t know. But frankly, it takes a heavy toll.”

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