As Kedar Jadhav walked onto the field at the MA Chidambram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday, he was welcomed with a chorus of boos. The crowd was expressing its displeasure at the decision to send him ahead of former India skipper MS Dhoni, a huge fan favourite in the southern metropolis for his association with the Chennai Super Kings franchise.
It had been two years since the Chepauk faithful witnessed Dhoni in action at their fabled ground. Too long a wait, some might say. Still, the connect was clear.
Once he walked on to the field, the cheers hardly ever ebbed. It did not matter that India were placed precariously at that juncture. The score was 64/4 when he walked to the middle. India were in trouble, but the fans in the stands did not care for such nitty-gritties.
The chants of “Dhoni! Dhoni!” rang through the stadium. Three main stands were empty, due to a standoff with local authorities but it had no effect as fans, now standing, in the remaining stands let their delight be known with the loudest of cheers.
The former captain forged a crucial partnership with Hardik Pandya to lead India’s fightback. Though, he was in his “natural environment” at Chepauk, Dhoni played an uncharacteristic knock as he let the determined Pandya take the lead. Seeing his younger partner’s aggressive streak, Dhoni looked to give the strike to Pandya. The all-rounder, to his credit, rose to the occasion with a blistering knock that turned the tide of the game.
The fans, though, were focused on Dhoni. Even as Pandya was going hammer and tongs, the chants continued to focus on Dhoni. The last time the Ranchi lad played an ODI in Chennai was back in 2015. It was a long gap, but fandom cannot be shackled by time. In the case of Dhoni and Chennai, the bond seems unbreakable. Dhoni scored 79 runs, in the process he completed a ton of fifties in international cricket, a feat achieved by just three other Indian batsmen: Sachin Tendulkar (164), Rahul Dravid (146) and Sourav Ganguly (107).
The knock laid the foundation for India’s 26-run win (via D/L method) over Australia in the first ODI of the five-match series.
‘Home’ comfort
Be it the adulation or the comfort, Dhoni has always delivered for his “home” fans. Other than his heroics for the Super Kings, the 36-year-old has always kept the runs flowing at the famous venue while representing India. His average stands at over 100 in ODIs played at Chepauk. In Tests, he averages a cool 80.75.
Not only has Chennai accepted him as their own, but it is Dhoni who has made the city his own with his performances. Former skipper Mohammad Azharuddin’s affair with the Eden Gardens was no less romantic. It was his favourite hunting ground. In seven Tests at the venue, he averaged an impressive 107.50. Not many can boast of such connections. Back in the day, it was Dilip Vengsarkar who enjoyed a similar bond with Lord’s. Whenever he batted at the venue, there was an unquenchable thirst to pile on the runs. He had an average of 72.57 in Tests at the home of cricket. In the four Tests that he played there, he smashed tons in three.
Like the two stalwarts before him, Dhoni too has come to make a venue his favourite hunting ground. But, his is a unique case. Not only has he made the venue his own, it is the people who have accepted him as their own.
What Tendulkar is to the Wankhede Stadium or Ganguly is to the Eden Gardens, Dhoni is that for Chepauk. The knowledgeable Chennai crowd has taken to Dhoni as their own. That he comes from a town over 1600 km away is hardly a hurdle.
The promised one
For Avinash Chandrasekhar, a resident of T Nagar in Chennai, Dhoni became the star that the city has long yearned for.
“While we have had a strong legacy and tradition of cricket much like Mumbai and Kolkata, there has sadly been no native icon like Ganguly for Kolkata, Tendulkar for Mumbai,” says Chandrasekhar.
“There have been players over the decades like S Venkataraghavan, Kris Srikkanth, and more recently R Ashwin. But they can’t be heralded as legends. For a state crazy about icons in cinema and politics, there was a void in cricket. Somehow, Dhoni has seamlessly filled that void over the last decade thanks to IPL,” he added.
Odes to Dhoni dot the periphery of the MA Chidambram Stadium. From posters declaring him Chennai’s son to even a sports shop named after him, across the road from the venue.
Its owner Syed Nizamuddin is forever hopeful that the inspiration for his business will one day walk through the doors and grace the establishment with his presence. “I still don’t know for sure if he knows we exist. Officials of the stadium once told me that Dhoni sir has seen the shop while going past it to the stadium,” Nizamuddin said.
On Sunday, he was back at the venue many call his home. The team bus once again crossed Nizamuddin’s shop and the wicket-keeper batsman once again walked onto the hallowed Chepauk field amidst the loud cheers. He wasn’t the captain or even the man of the match, but he was their superstar, once again.
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