An Open Letter To MS Dhoni

By Abhishek Ajish

Dear Mahi, I remember watching you land a Kookaburra cricket ball into the hearts of 125 crore Indians on a Sunday evening in 2011 at Mumbai. That day when a young boy from Kerala for the first time witnessed you, who perhaps changed the way he looked at his life.


Fast forward to more than a thousand days later, here I am still screeching, failing to come to terms to the fact that the greatest player to have ever graced our game, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has asked to ‘consider me Retired’.


Tell you what?? I always knew you were going to end it this way. When we are all busy with our work and suddenly a notification would pop up in our mobile reading “MS Dhoni has retired from International Cricket”, and you did that exactly in the ‘Mahi way’ we all knew. No farewell match, no press conference, no guard of honour, no decorations. I knew you would leave us just like that. For a country that's known for its flamboyance and its obsession for the limelight and then you to do something like this?? You surely have got to be built out of something else.


You always exemplified a true leader and how he should be when you were always the first one ready to face the media during the team’s rough patches and was always humble enough to send a teammate when the team tastes victory. As long as those sixes kept on flowing from your Spartan bat, Indians slept well. And the very next match if they don't, we sprint on to Ranchi in front of your residence, burn your models and do everything that could degrade a national icon to its fullest.


Everytime you step on to the turf wearing our blue and orange, I turn out to be a ball of goosebumps. Trust me when I say that I am not a man of goosebumps, but when I write this the hair at the back of my neck is all live and who knows they might be chanting “Dhoniii!! Dhonii!!”


Your journey has inspired millions of aspiring sportsmen all across the globe and it just fills my heart with joy and pride that I was born in this generation that was lucky enough to see the great Mahendra Singh Dhoni.


Lieutenant Colonel Mahendra Singh Dhoni, I salute you with utmost devotion and everlasting love for you and your eternal craft.

- A fanboy who might as well chant “Dhoniii Dhoniiiiii” on his deathbed.