An open letter to MS Dhoni

Dear MSD,

Father Time eventually conquers you. For many, it was long time coming. Whenever you played in the whites, you were considered a misfit. Some felt you weren't enjoying your time on the field.

Much of cricket at the top level is played between the ears and little between the 22 yards. You displayed that thought every time you went out to play for the country.For a man who emerged from a corner in Central India, your rise in Test cricket was all about the showcase of what a player with limitations can still achieve in an arena, where he is seemingly not successful as a wicket-keeper, batsman and captain. While you did have visible limitations of technique with the bat and agility as a keeper, you always found a way to remain India's best at the Test level for close to 10 years now.

Many of us tend to forget who your predecessors were. India and in fact, world cricket has hardly seen very few excellent wicket-keeper batsmen. As the Adam Gilchrist era started to dawn on Test arena, the demands from a wicket-keeper started to change. While it is unfair to compare you with Gilchrist simply because Gilchrist was arguably the greatest ever, you took over the keeping duties for a country which never had an excellent wicket-keeper batsman, to keep note of. The likes of Nayan Mongia, Saba Karim, Ajay Ratra, Deep Dasgupta, Parthiv Patel, MSK Prasad and Dinesh Karthik gave way to the name MS Dhoni. It is true that many of your predecessors were much better wicket-keepers, but the demand of modern day cricket was changing.

Being a good Test wicket-keeper wasn't going to be enough. Teams now began to identify potential wicket-keepers who can beef up as batsmen in the middle-order. We used to cry for a long time that we never found a stable wicket-keeper like a Mark Boucher or an Adam Gilchrist.This is where your success as a Test batsman, is highly underrated and misinterpreted, even more so for your performances overseas. The criticism was that you would never survive against the moving ball. While numbers don't always give the entire picture, you scored 13 half-centuries in conditions that aided swing and seam bowling (NZ, SA, Eng and Aus). What many don't take into account is the fact that you batted mostly with the tail and hence the opportunities to score centuries overseas declined. Turn back the clock and I remember a defiant Dhoni scoring an unbeaten 76 at Lord's (2007) to get India out of jail. It paved the way for an important overseas series victory in England after 21 years. You weren't just a dasher or a batsman who believed in counter-attack. You showed all of us that you had the versatility to display the tenacity required in the high pressure demands of Test cricket.

When Sachin Tendulkar scored his 50th hundred in Centurion, not many remember what his partner did. You scored 90 off 106 balls. You walked in with just two overs to go for the second new ball. The team had lost six wickets. Tendulkar was holding fort and he needed a partner to fight without giving up. And you stood up for the duel against Dale Steyn and co. Of course, it was all about the Great Man and hence your performance wasn't noted by the poets to praise about.

In the 60 Tests that you led us on the field, you averaged over 40. Five of your thirteen fifties scored in New Zealand, England, South Africa and Australia have come this year and you were the second highest scorer for India during the English summer. Runs did come, but when you don't have a partner to take the game forward, little would the critics remember of what you did as an individual.

Two hundred and twenty four runs in an innings at Chepauk. Two hundred of those runs come in just a days play. Sweltering heat. Swift running between the wickets. A test of fitness. Bludgeon the ball into pieces. Use the bat like a sword. Bat with the tail. On a crumbling pitch, you displayed a master-class at Chepauk that would long go down in the history of Indian cricket as one of the finest ever double centuries ever seen.

Oh MSD, how vindictive was the world against you!

You weren't as athletic and agile as many other keepers around. But has it really deterred you from being one of the worlds best? 256 catches over 90 Test matches mean that you've probably done something right on the cricket field. While we have had a history of butter fingered men behind the stumps, sometimes the criticism truly doesn't hold good because you can question only when there is lack of effort.

Does the world know that you own a record of your own with 38 stumpings in Test cricket? That you signed off with an Indian record of nine dismissals in a Test match was befitting because you showed many of us that with persistent effort and dedication, anyone can achieve the impossible.Many wicket-keepers come and go, but you redefined the art of wicket-keeping, especially stumping. You had your own way to collect the ball from the deep and make run outs. Of course, it is not as per the text book. But who cares, as long as it is the best possible way to get a batsman out, right?

Years down the line, if you get to see wicket-keepers collecting the ball close to the stumps and whipping the bails in a flash, remember that it was you who redefined the art! It is much easier to follow foot-steps that someone had imprinted upon before. What's tough, is to make a road and be the pioneer which you were.Talk to the sprinters to know the importance of the split second in sport. Your technique saves that split second, which the book doesn't ever talk about.

Oh MSD, how vindictive was the world against you!

The world was hell bent on the 8-0 whitewash and the series drubbing in England earlier this year. You were earmarked a defensive captain by a lot of former captains. Of course, you had to be defensive in conditions where you don't have a control over the game. Give Graeme Smith a bowling attack as under-cooked and as inexperienced as the one you had!Test Cricket was always going to be tough for you. In ODIs, you can win with runs on the board but in Tests, you need 20 wickets all the time. Could you and your bowlers afford to buy them?While you could only set fields and ask the bowlers to bowl to a plan, you cannot ever bowl for them. Can you?

When Mark Taylor says on air that a leg-slip is a field set for bad bowling, you showed the world that it is indeed a wicket-taking position. You stand vindicated after a wicket falls, but how much do the experts empathize with you when you have young and wayward fast bowlers who are still learning the art at the highest level? While captains usually set the field and ask the bowlers to bowl to that specific field before, you placed your fielders according to where the bowlers bowled.

When Clarke's leg slip works out strategically against Smith, it becomes a master-stroke. But when you attempt the same, they find it bizarre.They said you win 70% of your games at home and only manage 20% overseas. They say your record is extremely poor overseas. They say you and your team don't know how to win overseas. Did they take notice of the test series wins in New Zealand or the win in Durban or the series win in West Indies? Doesn't it tell that you can get the team to victory if you have an attack that can bite?

When the series drubbing began in 2011 and continued for years together, we all witnessed the collapse of a legendary batting unit and the fall of India's finest bowlers. Then there was the birth of prodigious batsmen and naive fast bowlers who were taking baby steps in Test cricket.You copped a lot of criticism for believing in the process and consistently backing your team-mates. I'm not sure what else would a captain do than support his own team-mates, especially when the chips are down. You always spoke of improvement when the team won and stood behind the boys, when pushed to a corner.

If ever, there was an eye for the future you showed it once again with your retirement.You knew that a long home season is coming up. The series in Australia is now off the hook. You decide that the time was just right to ask Virat Kohli to take up the mantle. That would leave you with some time to relax and prepare for a World Cup to defend in just over a month.

You've been instrumental in the evolution of young Indian batsmen and bowlers. You've put the team's cause ahead of your own personal goals. You didn't leave the arena when the legends of the sport bid adieu to this team. You didn't leave this team, when they were in troubled waters. You left them when you realized that you have found an able successor for the throne. You've allowed the new leader a good time to settle in the role before the overseas tours begin again.If this is not what a leader should do, what else should he do?

Oh MSD, how vindictive was the world against you!

What a script you chose to write! You grew from being a ticket collector to this generation's biggest sporting star. You showed the hungry, that nothing was impossible. You always chose to stay away from limelight. You weren't attracted by sensationalism and headlines. May be, that's where your greatness lay.As the sun sets on your Test career, I would remember you as a person who stood tall and calm like the light house near the high tides of success and failure.

Thank you, for the memories.