How we nearly lost Mahi to football

The small-town dream to wear India's colours just got bigger. KR Guruprasad salutes the cricketer who broke the monopoly of his urban counterpart and will continue to play a huge role in India's success stories on the pitch

Back in the 1980s, KR Guruprasad in Bellary didn't mind rising before dawn to catch Channel 9's coverage of the India-Australia series. Just as billions of cricket buffs in other parts of the country did.

There were other extremes toou00a0- skipping exams, waking up neighbours to watch live macthes on their TV, riding miles to watch a game and the like.

Small-town India never had it so big. Today, if the Dhonis, Sehwags, Rainas, Pathans and Harbhajans have become cricketing stars on the international arena, it's all thanks to a slow, silent revolution that has emerged from these regions that were once just dots on the Indian map.

The role played by sports hostels, mega bucks, the lure of IPL and regional leagues have contributed towards this phenomenon that will continue to bring in Indian talent for a long time. More importantly, a World Cup to be won back home in less than a month's time!

Chapter 1
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Excerpts: Pages 3-5

For school and state
Dhoni's roots can be traced back to Talasaalam in Uttarakhand's Almora district. His father, Paan Singh, used to farm in Almora till, in 1964, he decided to go to Lucknow to look for a job.

From there he went to Bokaro, where a steel factory was being built, but could not secure any job. He then moved to Ranchi, where he was employed as an unskilled labourer with the Hindustan Steel Authority.

Dhoni was born to Paan and Devki Singh on 7 July 1981 in Ranchi. He studied at DAV School and played cricket at a ground in front of his house in the Mecon Colony. He was also good at badminton and played football for his school as a goalkeeper.

His school team lacked a wicketkeeper and that prompted the cricket coach to ask the young Dhoni to try his hand at wicketkeeping. He was by then already known for his ability to hit big shots.

It is said that Dhoni's father was initially not too keen about his son's interest in cricket. Dhoni was academically sound, and Paan Singh wanted him to concentrate on doing something more stable than on trying to be a cricketer.

But Dhoni was not about to give up playing. His real growth as a cricketer began at the age of fifteen when he represented his school in the CK Nayudu inter-state school tournament. He subsequently played for Bihar in the Ranji Trophy and for the East Zone in the Duleep Trophy.

A Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official noticed Dhoni while he was playing for Bihar. 'He scored a half-century or so in that match,' says the official, who does not want to be named.

'But the way he scored the runs was impressive. It was clear that the teenager was strongly built. The sound of his bat bludgeoning the ball echoed through the empty ground. It was a ferocious display of power hitting.'

For India
Dhoni made it to the Indian XI in much the same way he made it to his school team. India's cricket selectors ufffdheaded by former wicketkeeper Kiran More -- were looking for a good stumper who could relieve batsman Rahul Dravid of his wicketkeeping duties.

More first saw Dhoni play during a Deodhar Trophy match in Bhubaneswar in 2002-03. He then saw him play in Jamshedpur.

'Dhoni was a surprise package for us at first,' More says. 'We saw him as a batsman, not as a wicketkeeper. He scored a fifty. We asked Pranab Roy (the selector from the East Zone) about Dhoni, and asked him to give the boy from Jharkhand a chance to keep wickets in the Duleep Trophy final. We were looking for a wicketkeeper-batsman to replace Rahul Dravid, who was keeping wickets too.

'So, we really pushed Pranab. It was difficult for him because Deep Dasgupta, who had played for Bengal and also for India, was the East Zone wicketkeeper at that time.'

Roy took the bold decision of selecting Dhoni to keep wickets in the Duleep Trophy final against North Zone in Chandigarh.

'Dhoni kept well and also got forty-sixty runs against North Zone,' More says. 'After that we made sure he went on the tour of Kenya and Zimbabwe. He scored 600 runs in Kenya. Later, the way he batted and kept wickets to Anil Kumble and the spinners in the Challenger Trophy in Mumbai was impressive.'

Dhoni made his one-day international debut in December 2004. A year later he played his first Test. In 2007 he led India to a win in the inaugural World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa.

Rise and Rise
The emergence of Dhoni as a cricketer did not surprise More. But the meteoric rise of the youngster from Ranchi, one of the highest-paid sportsmen in the world today, has caught the former chairman of selectors by surprise.

'Greg Chappell had predicted that Dhoni was going to become India's captain,' More says. 'He predicted that he would become the captain within seven months. I did not expect Dhoni to become so big.

'He has shown his maturity ever since he made it to the Indian team. He has become an exciting cricketer but the way he became the Indian captain -- in a short time and with the likes of Dravid, Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag still aroundu00a0-- was a great thing.'

More credits Dhoni's success to his having an astute brain. 'He has a good cricketing brain,' More says. 'You need to have calmness. It is not easy when you are captaining the Indian team. It is not like captaining the England team.'