Respect for the game sets Dhoni apart

Maninder Singh

Earning the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award is truly a great achievement for MS Dhoni as he truly deserves the cheers. He is indeed a right choice after Sachin Tendulkar for the honour as he has consistently churned out good results. Such a constant display of good results can certainly not be a fluke and Dhoni has seeped into the hearts of many with his game. Fearless yet sharp witted, his salient trait remains the fact that he trusts himself as much as he trusts his team, it is the mark of a great captain.

He respects the game and is clear in his head about how to go about his job. One thing that particularly interests me is his ability to take the responsibility of a defeat as gracefully as he accepts victory. It is something that will take him a long way in the books of cricket history.

He backs his guys well, a fact that he might get into trouble for as his constant backing of Yuvraj Singh is not yielding the desired results. Yuvraj has wasted his talent despite being enormously gifted in that area. He has had the options of playing with the greats of the game like Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble yet he has not picked up the finer nuances of the game from them.

The one thing that strikes me is the fact that Yuvraj’s body language and focus seem to have gone awry. His focus if definitely not right and he needs the services of the sports psychologist dearly. I think that BCCI needs to step in and offer him this initiative before it’s too late. They need to work on his mental approach to the game.

Coming back to MS Dhoni, he is the possessor of an exceptional attitude and a cool head. A worthy successor to Sourav Ganguly, he represents the new face of the young Indian cricket that seems all set to scale new heights.