Mohammad Kaif was walking back with the stumps in his hands after winning the 2002 Natwest Trophy at Lord’s when, out of nowhere, Sourav Ganguly jumped on him for a bone-crushing hug. It was a spontaneous gesture that summed up what his new, young team was going to achieve over the next two years.

On Tuesday at Brisbane, while Harbhajan Singh was regaling the crowd like a WWE wrestler just walking into the ring for a championship bout, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was calmly collecting his troops for a huddle. It was only when Yuvraj Singh leapt on him that Dhoni was forced to break into a smile.

The Indian one-day series victory in Australia — already being compared with the World Series triumph of 1985 —- could be dissected to reveal a plethora of heroes. There is young Ishant Sharma, evergreen Sachin Tendulkar, elegant Rohit Sharma and surly Gautam Gambhir. But, rising above them, usually one step behind, is the dominating figure of Dhoni.

This past year will always be remembered in Indian cricket history: for the disaster in the World Cup, the shock win in the Twenty20 championship, and for the sweetest of ends to a bitter series in Australia. Along with all that, it will be remembered as the time when Dhoni broke all norms of traditional decency. This is “my” team, he proudly proclaimed, and went on to stamp his individuality on a hand-picked bunch of winners.

At a macro level, Dhoni is very similar to Ganguly. They both fought for their players, they both defied the age-old law of parochialism, they were both sources of inspiration to a burgeoning new India, and the secret to the success of both lay as much in their handling of people off the field as of situations on it.

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