History is littered with examples of abysmal leaders: Edward II and Henry VI were catastrophically bad English Kings, Gordon Brown a dismal Prime Minister, and in cricket Ian Botham was a particularly poor England captain.
MS Dhoni is an entirely different case. Put simply, the Indian captain is a born leader.
Many thought him a brash and unlikely captain when he replaced Anil Kumble as skipper across all formats, but they have been proved comprehensively wrong.
Leadership has matured Dhoni. His own performances have been generally of a high standard, and the positive impact he has had on his troops is obvious. For one, India have developed a resilience that was hitherto non-existent.
He had already captained India to the inaugural World T20 crown in South Africa in 2007 and since then led them to the number one ranking in Test cricket; he even captained Chennai Super Kings to the IPL crown in 2010.
But have no doubt, trying to lead India to the World Cup in their own country was his biggest task yet.
Every move, word or action he has made over the last six weeks has been scrutinised by a critical Indian press and one billion fervent supporters.
Promoting himself above Yuvraj Singh in the batting order in yesterday's final was an extremely bold move. The game was in the balance and Yuvraj had been the Player of the Tournament - already winning four man of the match awards. Dhoni's own form with the bat had been scratchy.
But good leaders take responsibility. And that is exactly what Dhoni did. He played himself in and then launched into his trademark flamboyant strokeplay. In the end, it was fairly routine for India and the six that finished the game was clearly a tremendous release for Dhoni.
Bruce Springsteen was born to run, Dhoni is emphatically born to lead.
Where next?
Cricket Heroes: Mahendra Singh Dhoni
An XI of unlikely World Cup heroes and a not so heroic 12th man
The renaissance of Yuvraj Singh
Read all our 2011 World Cup posts here
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Yes, the World Cup was won by the best captain I think. He wasn't faultless leading his players in the field but as a general rule he was more attacking than the captains he came up against.
Intriguing to hear his rationale that as Sri Lanka played two off-spinners Dhoni thought he should bat above Yuvraj - an insight into what made him promote himself above a player who averaged in the 80s in the World Cup.
It came off so he has every right to take the plaudits - he batted superbly. I'm not sure anyone other than Dhoni backed the move though - high risk / high reward I guess.
Posted by: Cricket Burble | Sunday, April 03, 2011 at 09:19
Wouldnt disagree there Cricket Burble. No risk = no reward. Dhoni backed himself and reaped the dividends.
Posted by: The Reverse Sweep | Monday, April 04, 2011 at 10:42