MS Dhoni recalls the horrid time after returning to India from 2007 World Cup

Indian limited-overs skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is traveling around, giving interviews, sharing insights as the big day of the release of his biopic ‘MS Dhoni – The Untold Story’ draws close. He has been frank about how difficult it was for him to explain his emotions and feelings at particular moments to Sushant Singh Rajput who was to recreate it on screen. Also that he had clearly asked the director Neeraj Pandey to not glorify him but to depict his journey, that of a small town middle-class boy to one of the biggest names in Indian cricket.

Dhoni was in New York at a press conference for his biopic at the Fox Building in Manhattan. He shared the incident from 2007 when the Indian team landed back in New Delhi after being knocked out of the World Cup played in West Indies, where they lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It didn’t go down well with the Indian fans as they gave the players a hostile reception while the media also decided to make life tougher for them.

“When we landed in Delhi, there was a lot of media. At times, people feel that we are not emotional enough about it, but I always felt, as sports persons, you have to be strong enough to go through everything and it has to be within yourself,” Dhoni said. “It is not about coming for a press conference and crying about stuff, or crying in the field about what has happened.”

“At that point of time, when we landed, we had to get out in a police van. I was sitting next to Viru [Virender Sehwag] paaji. It was evening or night time,” Dhoni said. “We were travelling at a decent speed – 60 or 70 kms – and that’s quite a bit for India, that too on the narrow roads. And, you know, media cars around us with their cameras and the big lights on top, it felt as if we had committed a big crime, maybe like a murderer or terrorist or something. We were actually chased by them.

Also read – Kohli has done wonders for the country in a short span: Sourav Ganguly

“After a while, we entered a police station. We went there, we sat for a while and then we left in our cars after 15-20 minutes. That actually had a big impact on me and I channelised the aggression to become a better cricketer and a better human being.”

He had wife Sakshi for company along with Arun Pandey of Rhiti Sports who is the producer of the film. “It is a very simple story and that is the beauty of it,” talking about the movie, Dhoni said. “One thing I told Neeraj [the director] was, this story should not be to glorify me. It is about the journey of a professional sports person and that’s what it should be about.”

The World Cup winning Indian skipper admitted that recalling moments and explaining Sushant his emotions and what was going in his mind then was difficult as he is someone who doesn’t dwell on the past. “More than the physical attributes and the characteristics, Rajput wanted to know what I was thinking at different points of time in life and to explain that was hard and nostalgic,” Dhoni said.

“I was a bit worried initially when the whole concept of the movie came in, but once we were in, I was not really worried, the reason being I was just narrating my story. I was just telling Neeraj that this is what happened.”

He grew up in a middle-class family where job security is what most people seek and while he secured a job with the Indian Railways that gave him the chance to follow his dream on the cricket field since it diluted the risk. He also took the opportunity to urge the parents to let their children pursue their sporting interests.

“How to keep things simple in life? Often, you hear legends talking about ‘watch the ball, hit the ball,’ and that’s how simple it is,” Dhoni concluded saying.

Also read – BCCI to felicitate former captains in 500th Test