Captain Cool
It must be my power, the bat sped I generate, and the swing of the bat... Mahender Singh Dhoni is as calm and unruffled a sportsman on the field as he is self-effacing off it. But 'brute strength' and 'murderous form' and 'a man possessed' were some of the phrases that came to mind when on 5 April 2005 in Visakhapatnam, he exploded onto international consciousness by becoming the first regular Indian 'keeper to score a one-day century. With his striking form on the day, his long locks visible beneath his helmet, red tints glinting in the sunlight, 'Mahi' Dhoni had transformed from a boy from an obscure small town to a sports legend with the aura of a rock star. And yet Dhoni was no child prodigy, no overnight success. When he made his international debut at 23, he was already mature by Indian cricket standards-with five grinding years of domestic cricket behind him. How that legend came to be- and grew from game to game- is told here by noted sportswriter Gulu Ezekiel in his crackling but measured prose. Captain Cool is the story of M.S. Dhoni, Indian cricket's poster boy; it is also the heartwarming account of the life of a young man who won India the World Twenty20 title but can still tell his throngs of admirers,'I am the same boy from Ranchi'.
