Maybe this was destiny's way of getting India its next good captain. It probably said - "Oh heck, the BCCI can't do it in a million years; I gotta take a hand myself." Out of the blue, the big three decide not to participate, Yuvraj gets into the bad books of the BCCI, the players start playing like demons and India under Mahender Singh Dhoni absolutely smash their way into the Twenty20 finals.

While Mahender Singh Dhoni is everyone's darling because of his team getting to the world cup final, the reason why he makes me smile is because he is so very refreshing. The public that follows cricket is divided into two - the ones who comment based on what happened in the last match and then those who look not at facts / figures but depend on their instincts. My instincts tell me that whether India loses the Twenty20 World Cup final tomorrow or wins it, he is going to be a different captain from all captains we have seen in the past decade or so. No shirt waving for him, no books on philosophy and no "the boys played well; they batted well; they bowled well" kind of dialogues. It looks to me that Dhoni has a fair idea of what he wants to do, and he has the confidence to back his instincts. Surprising for someone who was a newcomer himself not so long back!

His decision to bowl Joginder Sharma in the last over against Australia must have left many hearts racing. If you had taken a poll of cricket experts before the over started, I am sure a majority would have give it a big thumbs down. It is not because they are all always wrong, but because ex-Indian players (including ex-Indian captains), have always gone by the motto of "safety first". Joginder Sharma wouldn't have fitted the definition as Sehwag would have or Yuveraj would have (if Tendulkar had been part of the squad, he would have been the choice of 100% of the ex-players), not because the named players are great bowlers, but because of their "experience", a magic word in Indian cricket.

What I specially loved was Dhoni's explanation for the decision, even considering that any explanation sounds good when backed with a win and sounds equally dumb when followed by a loss. I quote a small paragraph from this article - Look guy, it's just 22 runs. You are a pro in the domestic circuit and it's the same. You are under pressure but the batsmen are under more pressure. Australia has a reputation of winning, so let them do whatever they want and you just bowl at areas you want.

"You are a pro in the domestic circuit and it's the same"??? Amazing!

Even in the previous match against South Africa, (I think) it was Joginder who was getting the stick when Dinesh Karthik, keeping wickets in place of an injured Dhoni who was fielding at mid off, started to run up to the under-fire bowler to offer him his two cents. Dhoni was walking along with Joginder towards his bowling mark, and without too much fuss, he just looked back and waved his hand at Karthik, telling him to go back, causing the youngster to stop in mid-step and sheepishly move back to position. And in this team of no superstars (he could never do that to a Ganguly or Tendulkar running up to give advice), it was a powerful statement. "I am here", his gesture said, "I will handle it". To some it might sound rude, offensive or arrogant; to me it was a man who wants the buck to stop with him.

Apart from his ready smile and wit ("It is not everyday you win 3-0 in cricket", his comment after the match against Pakistan in the league stages), his diplomacy seems to be pretty polished too. He hasn't been shy of calling Yuveraj his trump card and Bhajji as brilliant, the former a man who is currently a hot contender for the captain's job if Mahi stumbles and the latter a temperamental star who always looks like he has a chip on his shoulder for having being out of the team so long. He has loudly proclaimed his faith in his men and they have repaid him justly. He flummoxed Ravi Shastri at the presentation ceremony after the semi-final win over Australia by telling him that he (Mahi) had proven him (Shastri) wrong in terms of his pre-match analysis on CrickInfo, but took away a lot of the offence by adding that he knew Ravi would be even happier than the players themselves to have been proven wrong.

Mahender Singh Dhoni has been recently elevated as the captain of the BCCI's ODI team too. He will definitely have his bad days when the Joginders to whom he trusts the ball for the last over will choke and the Yuverajs will find the fielders on the boundary rather than the trees outside the ground. He will face the pressure when he has the Tendulkars, Gangulys and Dravids in the team and wants to pick a Rohit Sharma in the eleven instead. That is where a win in the final would help him a lot. After Kapil Dev, he would be the first Indian captain to bring home a World Cup, albeit in Twenty-20 and one cannot easily push aside a World Cup winning captain. For India, it would only be beneficial to have a leader whose hands are strengthened thus. Mahi is all set for a long career at the top.