abt dhoni winning over a smaller nz team…welll…thats debatable actually

@mohit: yeah…proactive is a good word actually. but when u use proactive, we take away the merits of what i wanted to convey that dhoni has….i mean..it gets kinda generalized. today we say proactive for anything. we want even our postman to be proactive!
i felt ‘reactive’ would convey some kind of a “pull” in imbibing the facets of that style of leadership….its kinda more event driven..more action oriented. more urgent. more magnanimous.

proactive is kinda soft.
its more apt for a professor telling that to his students..

well its ok….i mean its bound to vary by perception

But the article as it unfolds, explains the sense in which the term is used very well too. So, no issues.

Well at the end of the day even Dhoni might be dazzled reading this blog coz he himself would be feeling that he never imagined he was such a good leader!!

The post was more about traits of a reactive leader than actual facts about Dhoni’s career. While most of the facts are absolutely correct, the perceptions can definitely differ. This is where i see Kaushik adding value to my post

@ mohit: u r right. The joginder thing incident was a good example of risk-taking. i think i missed that

keep reading guys…and hope we have a good analysis on a reactive leader before i post my next…..a take on another kind of leadership!

Just some points off the top of my head.

Example – the victory in NZ in 41 years. The NZ team minus Astle, Cairns, Fleming and Shane Bond is only a pale shadow of the team that was fearsome at homw till recently, and the pitches weren’t as dangerous as earlier tours. Similarly with Australia. The 2008 tour saw what can be described., at best a B-team of the Ozzies in late 90s. It was still a good team, infact, the number two test team at that moment, but without McGrath, Warne, Gilly and the rest – THAT thing was definitely missing

This is not to take any credit away from Dhoni, as an examinee can answer the paper given to him, (the level of difficulty doesn’t depend on the examinee’s whims and fancies) – but to bring to light the facts sometimes forgotten by the media

He asked Ganguly to captain the team for one last time. Ganguly did so for a couple of overs. And then tossed the ball back to Dhoni.”

No man, India won the match, and Dhoni gave the captaincy to Dada after the fall of the 9th wicket. Also, the fact that it was Dhoni himself who raised Kumble on his shoulders when Kumble announced his retirement after the end of the third test of the series.

2.. “When he was made vice-captain, Dhoni slashed his locks. He cut his hair and looked trim” – this is not completely true, as Dhoni had long hair while he won T20 WC. I think you are talking about vice-captaincy in tests

Shantan, on a different note, I disagree with many of your observations on Dhoni despite the fact that your’s is a brilliant post and I don’t feel I could have done such a remarkable job myself.

a. Comparison’s of Dhoni’s actons as captain of a winning T20 team and as an ordinary member of a team playing only his 15th ODI in a series where India already had a 2-0 lead is not absolutely fair and should not be taken as an indication of his persona

b. “Yet MS Dhoni openly said during the tour of Sri Lanka that he was fatigued and wanted to be rested for the Tests” – there are a number of ways in which this can be interpreted. Dhoni knew fairly well that he was the vice-captain of the team. That the existing captain Kumble was more or less a caretaker captain approaching the end of his career. That his closest rival to the pst of captain Yuvraj Singh was not yet a regular in the test team. That his closese rival to be the wicketkeeper of the team, and the man who played that series, Dinesh Karthik is nowhere close to being his perfect replacement in the team. This could have been a very well thought out and calculated gamble to earn some rest as well some brownie points

c. “I am sure many of you might be eager to put Ganguly in the same box. Fair enough.” – Ganguly and Dhoni never can be put in one box. Because Ganguly never enjoyed the privileges that many other cricketers in India do. This was a man who had the Damocles Sword constantly hanging over his head. Each defeat was magnified, Each victory was credited to someone else. Dhoni, on the other hand, has been definitely given a longer rope by the Board, the public, the media. This is not to belittle Dhoni, however – he has made opportunities count more than Ganguly ever did, and hence enjoys a much greater success rate.

d. “Would you ever expect the captain of a team not celebrate the moment of victory in a match that almost went down to the wire” – since this is about Indians, yes, one can say that no other Indian captain has reacted in this manner. However, cricket history is replete with such leaders – Victor Trumper, Ian Chappell, Clive Lloyd, Bob Willis and Allan Border have been known to have criticised their team at award ceremonies for “not winning by bigger margins” or “not pushing hard enough” (refer to cricinfo archives, I don’t remember the exact links)

However, there are some more aspects of Dhoni that should be highlighted – Dhoni as a human being. Post the victory in the Commonwealth Bank series win in Australia in 2008, where he received the flak for not keeping Ganguly in the squad from certain sections in the media – he retorted by saying that if his team had lost, all would have been blamed for not keeping certain individuals in the team. It shows that he can give it back to the Indian media, who think they can make or break a cricketer’s career, something that even calm captains like Pataudi couldn’t achieve. Another such incident was the public display of unity at the T20 WC in 2009, when there were “unconfirmed” reports of rift with the team (Indian media’s favorite scheme)

Another aspect of Dhoni is that he is extremely media savvy and presentable. This not only makes him an extermely popular choice for ads, but also endears him to the general public. Case in point – Despite dropping Ganguly from the Indian squad, his popularity graph in Kolkata only soared, and did not fall; contrast this to what Rahul Dravid faced from the Eden crowd in November 2006, and one realises that Dhoni as a leader combines the grace of Bradman, the killer instinct of Ian Chappell and Douglas Jardine, the humane nature like Mike Brearley and the ability to inspire like Steve Waugh and MAK Pataudi.

~from, a fan