MS Dhoni, CSK and the promise of one final finishing act 

It’s 2008. The IPL auction has generated plenty of buzz already. Some of India’s most high-profile cricketers have signed up as ‘icon’ players for franchises. Chennai Super Kings, though, do not have an ‘icon’ player prior to the auction.

They are looking at players they can pursue at the auction. They are trying to figure out who would suit the style of cricket they want to play, and become that cricketer that would define their franchise in the years to come.

The auction comes around. CSK, after hours and hours of research, have zeroed in on someone. The bidding for that particular cricketer reaches astronomical amounts. But CSK keep at it, and ultimately get their man. It is MS Dhoni they have broken the bank for – India’s only T20 World Cup-winning captain, and their current limited-overs skipper.

The moment that happens, you feel a current pass through the entirety of Chennai. A city that is usually laid back, quietly goes about its business, now has arguably the most flamboyant Indian batter as their captain. These two could not be more diametrically apart. Look closer, though, and they could not be more similar either.

The rest, as they say………is history.

***

It’s 2022. CSK are struggling to defend their title. All of their games are being played out in Maharashtra, and despite their large fan base throughout the country, they seem to be missing Chepauk that wee bit more. Dhoni is still around (of course he is) but is not the force he once was. He is still winning them the odd game, but not with the sort of regularity that defined his and the franchise’s purple patch.

The season ends in disappointment. CSK finish ninth, and the questions pile up. Most of them, understandably, are about whether Dhoni will continue, and whether he will remain skipper, having had a captaincy back-and-forth earlier in the season with Ravindra Jadeja.

Just two years ago, Dhoni had sent social media and thousands of fans into a frenzy by saying that he would “definitely not” retire after that season. In 2021, he told the broadcasters that he “still had not left behind”. In 2022, he told everyone that he would “definitely” return the next year.

The disastrous 2022 campaign was almost rendered null and void from that very moment. CSK had endured their worst season ever in the IPL, yet, there was hope of a brighter dawn in 2023. After all, Thala was going to come back….

***

Take any year between 2008 and 2022, and the picture, from every CSK fan’s perspective, is vivid and extraordinarily similar. They would struggle in some games, and look bereft of ideas until Dhoni would walk out to the centre and bend matches his team’s way. Suddenly, everything would start making sense and an outfit that did not seem very strong on paper would invariably end up contesting the game that matters in the IPL.

THE defining image during this period, though, was of Dhoni finishing off games in all shapes and sizes. It could be in the foothills of the Himalayas in Dharamsala, amidst the hustle and bustle of Cubbon Park and the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, in sultry conditions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, or while kissing the Arabian Sea breeze in Mumbai – it did not matter. As long as he was there at the end, CSK almost always won. No ifs. No buts.

It, of course, led to four IPL titles. Two of those, by the way, were achieved with what many termed as the Dad’s Army. That Dad’s Army, though, had the best commander in town. A commander who understood that amid the complications of match-ups, countless video sessions and social media age trolling, cricket remains a game won simply by scoring more runs than the opposition (and at times, taking more wickets).

***

MS Dhoni is back at the helm for CSK

Cut to 2023. And almost all of this now feels surreal. Dhoni is into his 16th season in the IPL. This is his 14th in CSK colours, and unless something dramatic happens, the 13th time he will start as the captain of CSK. Dhoni is 41 now, and is definitely not the same player that dominated cricket for fun.

There are days when everything clicks, and when it feels that his destructive capabilities are just as they were years ago. But that has, with time, become the glorious aberration that CSK and Dhoni fans keep longing for. In terms of aura, though, absolutely nothing has changed.

The former India captain has not played competitive cricket since the end of the last IPL, and has instead used this time playing tennis, breaking the internet riding a tractor and by just keeping his fans guessing. But remember, no cricket. If you looked at the horde of fans that gathered to watch him practice at Chepauk on March 27, you would never have known.

You would have thought this was Dhoni in his pomp, long hair flying down, the bat whirring after every helicopter shot and white, spherical objects being launched into space on a frequent basis. But this is not. Yet, it feels like it.

Between that particularly alluring discrepancy, lies the beauty of Dhoni. Almost every single brain cell would be telling you that he should have hung up his boots a season or two ago. But almost every single heartstring will keep telling you that this man is not done. At least not done without leading his beloved CSK franchise to where they want to be.

So, here we are. Days out from the 16th season of the IPL. CSK have won more than a quarter of the editions already contested and Dhoni has been the lynchpin - as world-class batter in most, but as ace tactician in all of them.

This season, that game of tactics prompted CSK to break the bank to buy Ben Stokes – another cricketer who carries an indomitable aura, and makes the opposition notice him, even if he is not quite at his best. Jadeja, too, is back in the squad, hoping to give his friend, mentor and elder brother the sort of farewell he deserves.

But leave all of this aside. Akin to how Dhoni gets that gut feeling to use the most suitable bowler at the most opportune moment, countless fans feel that he still has something to offer. What that is, probably no one knows, apart from Dhoni. That, however, is not a crime.

In a world where people are supposed to be like novels, and are perceived to be unpredictable until the last page is read, Dhoni is perhaps that novel that makes you want to come back for more, and keeps providing you multiple meanings to a singular conclusion.

As long as Dhoni feels he can still win CSK the IPL, thousands of cricket-watchers will buy into that. There might not be a rhyme or a reason to do so. But they will, and they will hope that the CSK skipper can finish off in style one final time.

Back in 2008, that was what CSK wanted their franchise to be defined by – the ideals of undying belief, and the indefatigable spirit that no game is lost until it is actually lost. In 2022, that is what CSK and their fans dreamt of, as soon as Dhoni said he would be back for what could possibly be his last hurrah. In all those years between 2008-2022, that was the feeling every CSK and Dhoni fan lived.

One more rendition in 2023, and it will forever be etched in cricketing folklore. Oh, and the rest, well, as they say, will be…….history.