Leading the team at Lords is a special honour, says Dhoni
London Its a privilege for anyone to step on the hallowed turf at the alt145 Mecca of Cricketand India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is no exception as he prepares to
lead his bunch of world- beaters in the first Test at the Lords today.
Dhoni, says that the experience of leading his team out at Lords on Thursday will be an honour to rank with anything he has achieved in his glorious career.
‘Its obviously big, leading 15 people who have the expectation of 1.2 billion,’Dhoni told the Daily Telegraph.
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‘Its an honour, its very special. But at the same time its an added responsibility.
You want the Indian team to win each and every game, which is not possible.
Still, thats what you are expected to do.’The alt145 Captain Coolduring the interview has spoken about how at times he feels like moving far away from the madding crowd on one of his 25 motorbikes.
‘If get the chance,’he says, ‘Somewhere in Delhi or Mumbai, I will take my bike out, take the helmet with me and go around for a ride.’The family man in him comes out once he starts talking about his family.
‘Since 2005, I have not spent much time with my family,’he said, thinking back to the year of his Test debut against Sri Lanka.
‘In fact, I have spent more time at the Taj Lands End in Mumbai. It was my 100th visit recently, which means I have spent more than 400 days in that hotel, and that is a lot more than I have spent with my family.’Talking about his parents, Dhoni got a touch emotional.
‘I feel awful as I am talking right now,’he added, ‘because I miss my parents.
But at the same time I know I will have fair amount of time with my parents once I finish cricket, after these two, or three, or four years – whatever it is.”My wife tells me when I am not around at the house, 80 per cent of the conversation is about me. But I told my dad, this is the time when I am doing something for the country, and the country comes first. I feel he really understands that.’Dhoni also spoke about how he first came into the limelight. ‘It was a 35- over game, the school league final,’he said. ‘I scored 213, and hit seven or eight sixes, and those were big sixes, I was quite famous in Ranchi from quite early.’When he started off, Indian cricket industry wasnt a billion dollar one so people were circumspect about his choice of profession.
‘In those days,’he recalls, ‘people would say, alt145 OK you play cricket but what do you do in life?’So he took a job as a railway ticket collector in Kharagpur, a town in West Bengal. ‘I played for Central Coalfields Limited and for Indian Airways,’he said.
Since 2005, I have not spent much time with my family. In fact, I have spent more time at the Taj Lands End in Mumbai. It was my 100th visit recently, which means I have spent more than 400 days in that hotel’MAHENDRA SINGH DHONI Team India captain
