M S Dhoni is not just the hard hitter in T20 or other cricket format. He is the embodiment of hope and courage of millions of youth who can dare to dream to do something big in life irrespective of however challenging their current circumstances may be.  Even five to six years back, MS Dhoni was a ticket collector in South Eastern Railways at Kharagpur Railway Station and grew up in a house that had to share only community toilet and bathing facility.

So, M S Dhoni, the new captain of Indian cricket team , is one  who did not hail from a family that owns a  fifty plus bedroom house ( Sourav’s house I am told) , or did not have a coach of the stature of Ramakanth Achrekar or did not have an upbringing of Rahul Dravid or VVS Laxman. He came to the top only through his sheer determination, courage and great ability.

All leaders leave behind a folklore that is carried on through generations and cannot be usually copied. When M S Dhoni  in a unique gesture of respect carried Anil Kumble on his shoulder in Anil’s  farewell  test match against Australia in Delhi  Kotla ground a month ago, that became a folklore announcing the arrival of a new genre of leadership ,much the way as Sourav  did  removing his shirt and showing his bare chest from the Lord’s balcony after winning the NatWest final  a decade back , heralding a new era when Indian players can look into the eyes of their opponents and play with matching aggression. When M S Dhoni invited Kumble to jointly lift the Border Gavaskar trophy after winning the tournament against Australia in Nagpur a few weeks back , as a gesture to the retired captain who led the other two matches of the series, the same speaks volume of  the humaneness of MS Dhoni. Success and opportunity did not make him arrogant. He shows, humility can coexist with power and pride.

Dhoni has been extremely successful in all formats of cricket with the T20 world championship already being in the pocket. However, it is important to show sustained performance and prove that the current successes are not splashes on the pan .I would like to make the following suggestions to Dhoni that can help him to remain on the top for a very long time.

1. Performance on the field is just not enough for a captain. You need to be equally adept in off- the- field manipulations, more so if you do not have too many uncles in BCCI or political well wishers. Remember, how Sourav went to meet the BCCI President Sharad Pawar after being dropped from the captaincy and team following the spat with Greg Chappel. Given Dhoni’s nature, he is always very open in his interactions .It is time you learn diplomacy and think several times before you speak .You also try repairing differences with the selectors. I am told they are not too unhappy with Sehwag and a few failures on your part can always prompt the selectors to seek a change in leadership. However, Sehwag’s swinging performance curve and the Board officials not being so much in his favor, you need not see any immediate danger from Sehwag, but in any case  don’t  keep threatening about quitting.

2. Dhoni has become an icon of youth in the country and got a celebrity status with his look, aggression and persona that no other Indian captain in the past (except Manshur Ali Khan Pataudi) received, not forgetting the “rub-off” effect of Dipika Padukone. You need to carefully orchestrate your exposure to public and be careful about your endorsements. You perhaps need a careful planning of your personal brand building. And this has to go beyond just the hairstyle change.

3. Sourav became a darling of people from Bengal as well as the Eastern Zone (remember, Greg Chappel was slapped in Cuttack and not in Eden!) since no one else from this region contributed to their dream and aspiration as much as Sourav did. In fact, after Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda and Matinee idol   Uttamkumar, I would keep Sourav in the fourth position as the all time most popular Bengali personalities. Similarly, Dhoni should fill in the slot for Jharkhand, Bihar and the entire eastern region so much so that with each over boundary that he hits, the entire Eastern region should find their revenge to the neglect since independence. He would do well perhaps marrying a Bengali or Oriya girl to consolidate this eastern region affiliation! This mass support will naturally endear Dhoni to the politics in power in Bihar/Jharkhand. Dhoni would do well in carefully managing such good will. Remember, without political clout and support, Sourav could not have made those come backs, his dropping from the team became an issue of debate in Lok Sabha too.

4. A captain must know how to articulate the media well. He must have his own reach in media to plant story without getting identified. At the same time he needs PR advisors to learn how to handle media, not from Indian team point of view (since there is an Indian PR manager any way), but from his personal point of view as well. Media can help him to air some of the views that he cannot contractually talk about directly. He can influence various stakeholders in the cricketing eco system by articulating the media intelligently.

5. A good captain always promotes performance, nurtures talents and appears un-biased. Sourav became a great captain by nurturing talents like Yuvraj, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Sehwag and the likes. The recent spat with the selectors over dropping RP Singh who has not been playing well does not present Dhoni as a wise and unbiased skipper. Dhoni should remember, as a skipper he has to win first and for this he needs a team that can perform the best at a given situation. Didn’t the same guy never hesitate to become unpopular by asking for the youngsters over the seniors for his T20 world cup team that finally won the cup? You have no reason to blindly support any individual. They remain friends as long as you are the skipper. When Sourav was dropped as skipper and not kept in the team, no player except Harbhajan had the courage to speak to him in public. So, don’t put your skipper ship at stake for anyone! By offering to resign as a captain over silly issue of R P Singh’s omission from the team you can be seen as a great martyr but not as a good captain. There is a mission in your getting the opportunity to captain Indian cricket team – to take it to greater heights and make it the numero uno of world cricket in all the formats and for a very long time. Don’t impatiently throw away such opportunity just because you have some differences with certain groups of people. You must wait for your time.

6. As a wicket keeping batsman, it is unlikely that you would lose your form as a player in both keeping wickets as well as batting. But, in the last one day against England at Bangalore, I did not find your keeping very clean, several times the ball hit your body before coming onto the gloves. This could be because of your preoccupation with the captaincy that stops you from giving complete attention to the delivery. You need to seriously address this issue and also correct your technique as a good keeper and test batsman. It is however extremely difficult to do all the three jobs of wicket keeping, batting and captaining the side equally well. You need to do some prioritization of tasks.

7. It was a pleasure watching Sourav doing his field placing, demonstrating his game reading acumen, aggression and leadership. But I see, you leave this matter mostly to the bowler as we saw Zaheer Khan doing this job for most of the part of the last one day match against the England team. There cannot be any poetic freedom for bowlers. Or like a bowling coach, you cannot have bowling captain! A captain must know his bowler’s strength, opponent batsmen’s weaknesses and how the field needs to be placed to your advantage. Then the bowler and the captain must talk and decide how the bowler should bowl and with what fielding position .I found the message that you gave to your bowlers are like this ,” You are the bowler, you know best how to bowl and get him out , carry on your way and make the fielding changes accordingly “. This is wrong. If the bowlers are pilots of an aircraft, then you should be the aircraft traffic controller deciding the course of the flight. You may make mistakes, but unless you make mistakes, how will you learn? Hope we would see a different Dhoni in next matches.

8. Sourav appreciated Dhoni saying he sees a lot of his style of captaincy in him in terms of aggression and surprising the opponent by unorthodox means. Besides Dhoni and the coach Kirsten form a team just the way Sourav formed a team with John Wright that went on to win many matches for India. Dhoni is also praised a lot for keeping his cool even at a tense moment of the game. Dhoni must capitalize on these assets. Besides, the entire nation now chants Dhoni’s name!

Go Dhoni Go…