MSD played big role in taking UP cricket forward
LUCKNOW: Finally, Mahendra Singh Dhoni hanged up his boots on Saturday, calling it quits from all forms of the game, but his backing to small-town cricketers, especially from Uttar Pradesh, will always be remembered as a big milestone in cricketing history.
Barring Mohd Kaif, who made his debut in 2000 under Sachin Tendulkar, all international cricketers then, including RP Singh, Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Sudeep Tyagi, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav, made it to the India team when MSD was around.
“It was Dhoni who changed the mentality of small-town cricketers in India and Uttar Pradesh cricketers benefitted most. He taught these small-town boys that the game didn’t belong only to big-city kids due to excellent infrastructure and good scope of game, but to them who have courage and determination to win,” says UP’s first Test cricketer and former national selector Gopal Sharma on Sunday.
Recalling MSD’s fearless and simple attitude to handling situations, Sharma, who picked Dhoni in the India team in 2004-05, said the keeper-batsman didn’t look under pressure even when he was playing his shots during the selection match at Jaipur for Board President’s XI vs South Africa. “I still remember his quick snapping of Gream Smith’s bails off Sairaj Bahutule at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium even though rival skipper was going great guns at 86. He (MSD) also scored a well-made 39 runs in the only innings and took two catches in the second innings,” said
Sharma, adding, “I stood for him in the selection even though there were oppositions too, but I knew that a special spark was there in his game and this will make a lot of difference to Indian cricket one day.”
Sharma, however, said that MSD’s meticulous rise in the game with back-to-back superlative performances both with willow and gloves, made him darling of everyone in India, including
Uttar Pradesh. “I always found our UP cricketers talking about Dhoni’s quality as a team mate, captain, friend and a great motivator and it made a lot of difference to our UP cricket too,” he said. Sharma said that MSD always stood like a rock behind UP cricketers whenever they felt some problem with their performances. “I recall the people’s reaction about the poor form of one of UP cricketers in the World
Cup matches, but Dhoni backed him and never allowed the cricketer to lose his confidence. Such acts made him a great cricketer.”
Former India cricketer and junior national selector Gyanendra Pandey admired MSD’s backing of UP cricketers in Team India. “He (MSD) always acted a great supporter and motivator of all the players in the team and his attitude on the ground always inspired others to put their best in
the match. Praveen Kumar (PK) always discussed about MSD’s support him in the match, and his support to Raina, RP, Bhuvaneshwar and even Kuldeep is wellknown to everyone,” said Pandey.
MSD’s backing to Chawla was evident during the auction for IPL team CSK, which fetched him for a whopping Rs 6.75 crore. Coach Stephen Fleming was quick to say that his IPL side traded hard for veteran Piyush Chawla because he shares a ‘great relationship’ with captain
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, besides being a quality leg-spinner.
“We were having a camp in Chennai just before the IPL was supposed to start. So, I had a discussion with him regarding cricket, and that was like I asked him about the decision of me getting into CSK, and he told me that obviously it was my decision to take you to CSK,” Chawla was quoted as saying after that.
Dhoni has always been a fan of Chawla. The right-arm leg-spinner was a surprise pick in 2011 World Cup squad. In 2018 as well, Chawla was Dhoni’s preference as CSK made the winning bid worth Rs 4.2 crore, but they missed out as Kolkata Knight Riders used their right to match card to retain Chawla for Rs 4.2 crore.
Moradabad’s Chawla, who hasn’t played an international game since 2012, has scalped seven wickets in three Tests. In 25 ODIs, he has 32 wickets. A member of 2007 T20 World Cup-winning team, Chawla has four wickets in seven T20Is. He was also a member of 2012 T20 World Cup team.