Hail Captain Dhoni!

Namaskaram

India faces many issues. A perennial one is that of its wicket keepers. It might well be my sheer ignorance but forgive me, i haven't seen a single keeper in the team last. Off memory i can count 5 keepers in the recent past, and i'm not even a keen follower of the game. They come, they are hyped, and they soon slip into the oblivion that is ranji.
Another issue we faced, The Double Edged sword that is the Indian Captaincy. One captain had issues with the erstwhile coach! he was, not so graciously shown the door, while another couldn't deal with the demons within, but he retained his place.
Around this period India unearthed MS Dhoni. He showed promise both behind and in front of the stumps. He was charismatic, daring and dare i say, dangerous with a bat in hand. This was a team that was transforming. With no Captain it didn't look promising.
All right enough of the foreplay, lets get to the good part. Dhoni was given captaincy. We all know, what ensued. The rest is not HISTORY. It was consistent hard work, and a whole lot of luck. For a change our national team did look like world beaters. And for the first time the team was showing the tenacity and flair (although only in glimpses) associated with the Aussies. Well, history didn't happen, we didn't run away with all the matches we played, but we were showing improvement.
What really impressed me, and generally the entire nation im sure is our crushing of the Aussies down under, in two matches in a best of three finals.. Lets give them the credit they deserve. That is literally the tennis equivalent of beating Federrer in Wimbledon on Center court in Straight Sets. Very very impressive. And From where i see things Dhoni was certainly the chief architect. First he dropped the senior citizens in the team(kudos to you). Then followed the show of faith in Gautam Gambir, and the icing was the introduction of Praveen Kumar. He swung us to glory the last two games. So a lot of credit to Dhoni. But this still isn't the purpose of the blog.
The real fete by our man was the 'shepherding' of the Super Kings team. Sans the Hayden, Hussey and Oram power play, the team looked very ordinary. And it took a strong captain, and a trusting one to show the team the way. Although the super kings were helped a great deal by the Failure of the Mumbai Indians to capitalize on their chance, the kings deserved their place in the finals (anyone who disagrees can take a hike, cause its my team, its the pride of Chennai, so screw u deranged narcissist). Once in semis it was certainly any teams game, and despite not being the best team in the league, we (with reference to the super kings) had a chnace of victory, and to be fair so did Punjab and Rajasthan (Come on, lets not kid around, Delhi without a firing sehwag is just not threatening).
A brilliant team effort in the semis, meant we were in the finals. I cant resist this, but i did hear a lot of, "CHENNAI SUCK" and the analyst gave no chance to Rajasthan at the start of the tournament, but here the final was being played between them. So #%@* u all.
I know we lost in the final, but we lost to a better team. No regrets there at all.This loss brought to light Captain Extraordinare (no, not Warne, we'll talk about that later).Out stepped Dhoni, he did not hang his shoulders, no cold handshakes, no pointing fingers, no blame game. and i quote him "We lost as a team". Now if thats not mature, what is? A lesser mortal could have shrugged shoulders and pointed at the poor bowling that cost us the game, but NO not Dhoni. It was collective. It was spontaneous and it was from the heart, and it was exactly what the team deserved.
Praise flowed in for our dear captain, and every other person who is an anybody in the field was talking about him, and so am i, WHY? because the man has earned it.
All things said and done, Dhoni rocks. I absolutely adore his every move (although i did disapprove of Miss Padukone, who am i to judge). The man is going places and taking team India and the Super Kings with him. Lets just hope this captain does not end up in a match fixing scandal or a suffer a string of defeats or run into a schizophrenic coach, or looses belief in himself. Heres praying we finally have a captain on par with Waugh or Beckenbaur, one who'll lead from the front.
Hail Captain Dhoni