'Dhoni made it possible through his hard work'

Coach Banerjee takes a look at the reel tale

Fresh insights into the already well-chronicled life of Mahendra Singh Dhoni came when his biopic — MS Dhoni, The Untold Story — was released last month.

A runaway hit, the movie traced the India limited-overs skipper’s rise from nowhere, his equation with friends and family, his relationships and marriage to Sakshi before culminating in perhaps his greatest achievement — winning the 2011 ODI World Cup.

Some revelations in the movie came as a surprise to many considering how a majority of the stars are wary about sharing information on their personal lives.

One of the important scenes in the film throws light on his school days when Dhoni is asked by his DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir school coach Keshab Banerjee to keep wickets.

The scene shows Banerjee sending forth a kid to ask Dhoni if he is interested in wicketkeeping after being impressed by his goalkeeping skills at a football training session.

Banerjee, highly appreciative of the movie and still rejoicing at his greatest discovery, said he actually first spotted Dhoni during a football match and not during a practice session.

“The movie shows me asking Dhoni to join the cricket team right after seeing him goalkeeping. It’s only a small aspect as the entire thing cannot be shown in a movie. In such a case the movie will go beyond eight hours!,” quipped the 59-year-old Banerjee, who still coaches at the same school.

“I first saw him play in a football match between Shyamali Football Academy and R&D, SIAL. One of the guys took a shot from the half-line and it was clearly headed towards the goal. Dhoni dived full length and punched it away. That's when it occurred to me that Dhoni could be a good wicketkeeper. He was in Class VI and I asked him if he was interested in keeping as I needed a wicketkeeper in one and a half years’ time.

“He then told me that in cricket it’s a small ball and how would he catch it. I told him to catch the ball the same way he did in football and slowly you would get a hang of it. It started that way. It must have been 1991-92,” recalled Banerjee, who, like Dhoni, started his career in football — as a coach in SAI-Assam before settling down into a cricketing role.

The movie shows Dhoni honing his batting skills playing tennis ball cricket and Banerjee said his student made his career there. “He’s fond of playing Cosco ball cricket.

“The shots he plays now, he got all of them from that. It’s all natural. Nothing has been changed. What he has learned from Cosco ball cricket, he uses the same now. I believe in natural upbringing and never wanted him to change his unique style.”

In the movie, Dhoni struggles to get batting-time as Banerjee thinks he is best suited for wicketkeeping until everything changes with a brutal knock that won his school a crucial game. Banerjee, a father of two sons who lives with his wife in a small apartment and rides a scooter even to this day, recalled that match with excitement.

“He was in Standard VIII and it was a quarterfinal match,” said Banerjee. “There were four overs left and he walked in at No 7. He just smashed everything out of sight, knocking down the 60-odd runs needed in those four overs. From that match I realised that he had to be pushed up the order. In Class XI, he went up the order because some of the seniors left. In Class 11 and 12, he started batting at No 3 and 4.”

Ever since the release of the movie, plenty of media attention has been cast on the ones who have played an integral part in his upbringing. However, his close friends and Banerjee wish not to be part of the limelight.

“You have seen many saying I am his first coach, second, third etc. I am not his first coach. His mother and father are and then me. If his dad had had his way, he wouldn’t have come into cricket.

“Many clubs have their own coach. In a company, you have a boss and once you quit, you will have a new boss at your new company. His parents are his biggest teachers. I’m happy to have played a part in giving India a great cricketer but what Dhoni has achieved now is all his hard work and dedication.”