Dhoni: ICC Hall of Fame a reminder of his unique legacy in Indian cricket

At the peak of his playing days, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was not really known for paying obeisance to the cricketing establishment – while his contempt for the media was too well known. One remembers him being a conspicuous absentee at the ICC annual awards in Dubai in 2009 to collect the prestigious ICC Cricketer of the Year award.

Times have changed and MSD, now 43, sounded suitably reverential after becoming the 11^th Indian to be included into the ICC Hall of Fame for 2025 on Monday. The othe recipients alongside him were Matthew Hayden, Hashim Amla, Graeme Smith, Daniel Vettori among men and Sarah Taylor and Sana Mir among women.    

‘’It is an honour to be named in the ICC Hall of Fame, which recognises the contributions of cricketers across generations and from all over the world. To have your name remembered alongside such alltime greats is a wonderful feeling. It is something that I will cherish forever,’’ remarked Dhoni, who is the only ‘active’ player – albeit in franchise cricket - among the chosen seven in IPL though he had last turned up in India colours in the 2019 World Cup in England.

Going by history, the ICC follows a cooling off period after a cricketer signs off from the game for considering his or her candidature the elite club. The likes of a Hayden, the seniormost among the recipients has turned into a TV pundit, Smith a distinguished cricket administrator and Vettori a coach while Dhoni is still turning up in the yellow shirt for Chennai Super Kings. The jamboree that is IPL – not to speak of the justified clamour for him to quit in a player’s capacity – often overshadows the awesome legacy that the man from Ranchi has left in Indian cricket.    

 A total of 17,266 international runs, 829 dismissals and 538 matches across formats for India, Dhoni’s numbers reflect not just excellence but a saga of consistency, fitness and longevity. Just ponder this, for the first 10 years of his career till he called time on his Test career in 2014-15 in Australia, he has played in all three formats non-stop – unlike some of his peers or a young successor in Rishav Pant who has been in and out of white ball formats.

Add to this is Dhoni’s record as a captain where he has three major ICC Trophies in his cabinet (2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ICC World Cup and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy), apart from guiding the team to No.1 Test ranking. Credentials which are mindboggling for the decision-makers at the ICC but for the Indian fan, he is the biggest iconoclast in the new millennium.

Before his Dhoni’s arrival, no diehard Indian cricket fan would have dared to think that there could be an Indian captain from Ranchi – and he had been a Pied Piper who led the smalltown cricketer to believe that he could one day wear the India colours. The year India regained the 50-overs World Cup after 28-year wait, journalist K.R. Guruprasad authored a small but valuable book on 11 players from the hinterland of the country Going Places: India’s smalltown cricket heroes with Dhoni as the leader.  

 Those who featured in the book included a Virender Sehwag from Najafgarh, Harbhajan Singh from Patiala or a Suresh Raina of Kanpur. The list is endless in the IPL days but then, one has to give due credit to the man who started it all.  

 ‘’He (Dhoni) gets out for 0 he’s the same, he wins the World Cup he’s the same, he gets a hundred he’s the same, 200 the same,’’ remarked Ravi Shastri at a ICC function in London on Monday which announced the names. That is very much the quintessential M.S.Dhoni for you, who always talks of living in the present.

 He has to be judged in the context of his legacy in Indian cricket rather than runs and dismissals – and certainly not as the CSK icon hanging on to his brand value in the league of razmatazz. Thank you, MSD!