Dear Mahi,
Truth be told, I am still numb. I don’t have too many words that I can knit together at this point in time. You know they are saying that it’s just the captaincy that you have decided to put down, but possibly deep down we all know, this is just the beginning of the end.
You were already battling on a stretch, and your body made that evident for all of us. But then not all battles are fought to assert supremacy. A few are fought to just make us believe that you gotta keep on fighting, come hell or high waters. You gotta keep on believing in yourself.
I wanted to write this letter to tell you that when I started following your career more closely, I exactly wasn’t a fan of yours. It was more of a love-hate relationship. And then like every iconic drama, it slowly starts sinking in, about the greatness that you are going to witness.
When you won us the 2007 T20 World Cup with a move that left everyone shellshocked, bringing in Joginder Sharma in place of an experienced Harbhajan Singh, I swear, I had my heart in my mouth. When Misbah connected the scoop, I knew it was over. But then surprisingly, there was Sree at fine leg and the next thing we knew is that we lifted the inaugural T20 World Cup.
Fast forward to 2011, agony of four long years of crashing out prematurely and it still haunted us until that day in Wankhede. The entire tournament, your bat didn’t exactly speak. You chose a day where the entire world prayed that it sang, and of course it sang, in fact, it rapped faster than Eminem could have. And then what followed suit was history.
ICC Champions Trophy 2013, Ishant Sharma comes in to bowl. We think that you have lost your mind. The next thing we know is that Ishant has won us the game. How Mahi? How did you figure all of it out? Was it some grand scheme of events that you already knew were going to happen? Were you some sort of herald of the humdinger?
Well, whatever it was, what mattered was that it all happened. I am not complaining for it won’t happen again but I am grateful for everything that you did. I am grateful for all the moments you gifted us. I am grateful to have gotten an opportunity to see you lead. Thank you Thala for all the heart that you had shown. Thank you my leader, my captain, my general.
Yours sincerely,
A crazy cricket fan
