Dreaming of being the next Dhoni
Somewhere out there, the next Dhoni is flaying a ball to the boundary and dreaming of doing it in Mumbai.
|||Mumbai is this country’s epicentre with its “Gateway to India”, its iconic buildings and its endless stream of people in and out of the metropolis.
Here, people from all over the world come to lose themselves – and find themselves – as they walk the storied, cobbled pavements, and are engulfed by everything from chancers to beggars and the effortless charm of salesmen out to make a quick dollar.
In the midst of all this colour and character, there is some cricket, too.
By right, there shouldn’t be so much greenery in a city where space is at such a premium that every building now goes higher and higher.
And yet, beneath the skyscrapers and delightful art deco buildings – the second most in the world after Miami – dotted all over the city, cricket breathes and thrives here.
It remains an integral part of the culture.
If you walk just a little out of the business hubs and coffee shops, you’ll find one long stretch of land. It could easily be made into the longest single hole in golf, but India has more inclusive plans than that. There are about six little grounds, one next to the other, all hosting a match of some sort.
Every morning without fail, people turn up, resplendent and respectable in their traditional whites, and toil away in the oven that is this wonderful city’s equaliser.
It’s no wonder India’s best batsmen in history had wonderful concentration.
They bat for hours on these little incubators of future stars which turn fielders’ white pants to a dusty chocolate hue by the evening as they chase ball after ball after ball. It’s fascinating to watch and the enthusiasm for the game here may not be found anywhere else in the world.
Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that all around them are examples of the fruits that the laborious afternoons chasing leather may yet harvest. There are giant billboards with famous faces wherever you turn.
But, despite Bollywood’s studios being nestled right here, the faces are not usually Bachchan and Khan, but rather Dhoni, Harbhajan or Tendulkar. Cricket has changed many a life and the IPL provides a dream that is seemingly within easier grasp than Bollywood.
And so this wonderful, historic hotbed of business, treasure and leisure revolves relentlessly around the game. Even their amphitheatre of a stadium, Asia’s answer to the MCG, Wankhede Stadium, is surrounded by money.
It is the jewel in their cricketing crown, a modern mecca where many a dream has been realised. Dhoni smashed a six into the Wankhede stands that not only sealed the World Cup in 2011 but also cemented him as the highest paid cricketer in the world.
India loves a story and it loves a sale. So to be able to sell the story of Dhoni, the boy who went from being a train ticket collector to being the personal gravy train for a fleet of wide-eyed, hand-rubbing marketing suits.
Dhoni’s personal tale reiterates the point to a billion dreamers that, through this wonderful game of chance and timing, a man can change his world.
And because of that, and that alone, the endless games of cat and mouse that play out on Mumbai’s mini ovals go merrily on until the sun sets and mummy’s curry calls. The same insatiable appetite can be found on dustbowls across this land, too.
Somewhere out there, the next Dhoni is flaying a ball to the boundary and dreaming of doing it in Mumbai with the world watching.
That dream never fades…