M.S. Dhoni has been by far the best cricket captain Indian Team has ever received. There are many qualities that we can learn from Dhoni that you and I can implement in our lives that will be of great benefit. Indian Team under his captaincy have won ICC T20 World Cup — 2007 and ICC ODI World Cup — 2011 after 28 years.
So, today here I am stating top 10 best qualities that I feel that everyone should implement in their life to progress and become a better person.
- Calmness:
No matter what the situation is, Dhoni always maintains a sense and approach of calmness. How much pressure-like the situation is Dhoni’s calmness shines in his decisions, his batting style and his wicket keeping. This calmness is also contagious and also brings calmness to the younger teammates.
2. Hard work:
We all know how much struggle Dhoni has gone through in his initial career days. He came from a lower middle class family background. He worked as a Ticket Collector in Railways to keep his cricketing dream alive. But, he has never let himself disheartened by any setback and tried to convert every challenge into an opportunity.
3. Persistence:
Whether it be the IPL performance or ODI or Captaincy Dhoni have every time shown the selector why he is captain cool, why he is called best finisher in the game.
4. Absorbing pressure:
Whether it was 2011 world cup final where he rise up to the occasion or Celkon tri-series final where with 11th batsman on the crease he instructed Ishant Sharma to play penultimate over a maiden and then himself alone went on and chased 17 runs with 2 balls to spare in last over.
5. On continuously working on yourself :
He has worked very hard on his wicket keeping and it shows in his performance on the field. This can be accessed by the facts that he has thought of many different innovative ways and jelled them well with gifted presence of mind like in many cases as stumping out batsman within fraction of second, making a throw without looking at the wicket and looking normal till the last moment as if bowl is not coming to his end.
6. Being street smart:
Whether it is opening bowling with a spinner or handling the bowl to at the time less known bowler Joginder Sharma in T-20 World Cup Final, Dhoni has delivered many such googlies to which opposition has no answers while remaining behind the stumps
7. Presence of Mind:
This is the one quality where Dhoni shines and leaves the other players far behind, he is just class apart. Take it instructing the non-striker to cross him in the middle of the pitch when the bowl is in the air and there is chance of him getting out, so that, the new batsman does not have to face the bowler or I hinting Sachin to bowl a wide predicting that Afridi will try to hit the bowl by coming down the pitch.(Sachin bowled that ball wide, and Afridi got stumped by Dhoni, you can watch the video of it on youtube). Dhoni has proved it in many situations that he lives in the present and constantly thinks what’s best for the team.
8. Maintaining positive state of mind:
After the 2011 world cup which was a dream come true for every cricket enthusiast, Team India was unable to win series abroad in England and Australia and also legendary senior players were nearing their retirement. At this crucial time in 2013, Indian Premier League was shocked by a scandal where 3 Rajasthan Royals players were involved in spot-fixing, officials of Chennai Super Kings were also involved in betting. Dhoni was targeted in some media discussion as he was associated with Chennai Super Kings as Captain at that time. Dhoni was leading the Indian Cricket Team into the Champions trophy in June 2013. He took the relatively young team to Champions Trophy glory thereby becoming the only man to win all ICC trophies in the same calendar year. This shows he took this negative situation and circumstances building around Team India not as an excuse but as a challenge and opportunity. This happened only because of his positive state of mind.
9. Be a Dreamer :
M. S. Dhoni, a son of Pan Singh Dhoni who was Junior Management worker in MECON in Ranchi, Uttarakhand, wouldn’t be greatest and the most successful captain of India if he would not be a dreamer with the open eyes. M.S. Dhoni dreamed that he would some day play for India and focus on sharpening his wicket keeping and batting skills. He worked as a ticket collector on Kharagpur Railway Station. He thought about his game not just when he was playing first class cricket but also when he was Indian Team Captain, you can see this in new and innovative ways he brought to his wicket keeping skills like throwing the ball onto the stumps without seeing or preventing leg glance or paddle sweep with his wicket keeping pad. This was all possible because of dreaming with open eyes and putting in the work with alert and open mind.
10. On Being Humble Leader:
Be it a 2007 ICC T20 World Cup after final ceremony or ICC ODI World Cup 2011 after final celebration moment which came after 28 years and the final match in which Dhoni played a crucial role on both of these huge occasions Dhoni could have taken the center stage and tabloids would have praised and sung songs for his efforts but as a humble leader he politely receive the trophy and humble handed it over to the younger team members and stand somewhere on the side in the celebration photo. So by being humble, you send a message to younger team members that you are approachable, polite and a good human being.
With this article I wish some of the qualities if you and I could implement and practice in our daily life, we could be better persons and with transforming ourselves we can make this world a better place to live for our and future generations.
