MS Dhoni, the man with the Midas touch, needs no introduction. Arguably one of the greatest Indian captains of all time and one of the best finishers the game has seen, the 34-year-old wicketkeeper batsman has seen his legend grow tremendously over the years.
Hailing from the small city of Ranchi – the capital of Jharkhand, the Indian cricket team’s limited-overs captain started out as just another youngster trying to make a name for himself in the game, which can oft be mistaken for a religion in India. Following some years of struggle in the domestic circuit, Dhoni finally got his big break in an ODI series against Bangladesh in 2004, but endured a debut to forget as he was run out on the very first ball.
After some hits and misses, the Ranchi lad, finally announced himself to the cricketing fraternity with his annihilation of Pakistan at Vishakhapatnam as he notched up 148 off 123 deliveries. Following the ODI World Cup debacle in 2007, Dhoni was appointed India’s limited-overs captain and the wicketkeeper-batsman led India to the 2007 World T20 title in the inaugural edition of the tournament, the whole world taking note of the unorthodox captaincy displayed by the Ranchi lad.
Numerous series wins and record-breaking victories followed, but Dhoni’s crowning glory was guiding India to their second World Cup triumph in 2011, when the swashbuckling wicket-keeper batsman played a captain’s knock in the final to help his team win the World Cup on home soil – bringing an end to the 28-year long wait of over 1 billion Indians.
Dhoni's match-winning six in the final had a life-changing effect on more than one person, especially a Nagpur-born girl, who was pursuing her under-graduation in Computer Science from the University of Pune. It was the six that enabled her to brave the odds and make a life-changing decision.
From being another run-of-the-mill Computer Science graduate that India is filled with, she chose to follow her dreams and motivate other people. And is today, just 31 days away from the launch of her first book, “Think and Win like Dhoni”, which has, as you could have made out, been inspired by the World Cup winning captain.
We are talking about Sfurti Sahare, the author of the book which takes a closer look at the reasoning behind MS Dhoni’s impromptu and intuitive decision making. In the words of the author, the book is “about 5 things which Dhoni has, which make him exceptional; everybody, be it a celebrity or a regular working class person, would benefit from it.”
“It is a completely motivational book. A pure self-help book, which can help anybody and it is dedicated to the youth because I want people to follow their passion. I am a computer engineer and I have switched to something which I love, and I am enjoying my life so much. If I had not taken this step, I would have never known that I could be an author,” Sahare adds.
With the book scheduled for a 6th July launch, one day ahead of MS Dhoni’s 35th birthday, we got the chance to interact with Sfurti to better understand the inspiration behind her writing this book and how the Indian captain had influenced and changed her life.
How MS Dhoni inspired a Computer Engineer to follow her dreams
In a candid conversation with Sportskeeda, the motivational speaker revealed that it was an incident a few years ago, when she found out how effective following Dhoni’s ideologies and his thinking process could prove to be when applied to daily life.
Sfurti is miffed by people stereotyping Dhoni as the ‘lucky one’ and instead insists the naysayers to accept that the Indian captain is extraordinary and has an exceptional mind. She revealed that following the World Cup winning six, the Indian captain captured her imagination and she started observing him to understand how he reacted to certain situations.
During the conversation, I was also made privy to the fact that she would also observe and interpret what Dhoni’s peers, friends and teammates used to say about him, which eventually helped her better understand the Indian captain.
Talking about this life-changing incident from a few years ago, she revealed that during an emotionally disturbing phase of her life, while she was fighting for her life against Dengue and had missed a couple of months of work, that she finally started inculcating Dhoni’s thinking process into her life. And according to her, everything started changing in her life and applying Dhoni’s out-of-the-box thinking in regular situations was paying huge dividends.
I am a fan of Dhoni’s mind – Sfurti
Sfurti, who also idolizes another Indian great – Sourav Ganguly, revealed that she is an admirer of the Indian captain’s thinking pattern.
She said: “I am a fan of Dhoni’s mind, I am a fan of his thinking pattern. If you ask me if I am a fan of Dhoni – I am a fan of his thinking and I really wish to get that in me.”
Talking about her quest to become an author from being a computer engineer, she divulged about her trip to Ranchi, which she undertook to better understand Dhoni’s psyche and explained how her interactions with friends and teachers of the iconic Indian captain, helped her collect many stories about him.
When asked about what surprised her the most about the talismanic Indian captain, Sfurti emphatically replied: “His work ethic. I have done so much and when I apply it [Dhoni’s way of thinking] it makes things easier, what I realized was that if someone like Dhoni can apply and put it, my life is really simpler than him, so why can’t I and why can’t we all?”
Sfurti had a special word of praise for Dhoni’s management, who helped her a lot in realizing her dream of meeting Dhoni and getting to have an inside look into the life of the Indian captain.
During the conversation, I managed to ask her if she intended to follow this book with another one inspired by a sportsperson to which she replied: “I really don’t know if my second book will be based on a celebrity or a sportsman, but my second book will be pure motivational.
“I really believe in the power of intuition, like this book on Dhoni was completely based on intuition, I didn’t plan to write a book on Virat Kohli or Shah Rukh Khan, I have not planned it. But, yes if I write, it would be a motivational book for sure.”
Sfurti, who is a motivational speaker by profession, also intends to work with the Indian cricket team in the future and talking about this subject, she added: “I told Dhoni that I want to work with Indian cricket team very very soon. I am training a lot of sports academies and I do a lot of motivational talk. I give pep-talks to corporate and management students, but now I am doing a lot of training with sports kids. Maybe in 2-3 years, you will see me doing IPL or something. Let’s see.
“I would definitely be working with sports team in the future, and it won’t be restricted to the IPL.”
We are all looking forward to reading Sfurti’s book, which is already a bestseller, to understand the thinking and psyche of MS Dhoni. However, as the author had pointed out, it is more of a motivational book, than a cricket book and will help each and every individual in our quest for success. After all, who doesn’t need motivation in their life?
‘Think and Win like Dhoni’ is currently available for pre-order here and will soon hit other major online retailers. Pre-order now to stand a chance to win T-shirts and Caps signed by the captain himself.
You can also connect with Sfurti Sahare on Instagram at - Sfurti_Sahare
Here’s a preview video of Think and Win like Dhoni:
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