Both these men have turned the tide in their favour and they love to take challenges head on. Jose Mourinho and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are successful leaders for a reason: destiny
Jose Mourinho?s press conference after the second-leg Champions League match at Old Trafford sounded more like an audition for his next big job. He refused to gloat, rather condemned Nani?s red card and said, ?the best team lost?. He was effusive in his praise for Sir Alex Ferguson, berating the hacks for questioning the United manager?s decision to drop Wayne Rooney from the starting XI. Mourinho is very keen to return to the English Premier League at the earliest available opportunity and it is very clear that whenever he comes back it won?t be to replace Paul Lambert at Aston Villa. Right from his arrival at Manchester, Mourinho didn?t do anything that would ruffle feathers at the Old Trafford boardroom. He has always considered Manchester United?s managerial role as his Holy Grail and this time the Portuguese appeared to be very conscious to present himself as Ferguson?s heir apparent.
Mourinho returned with his reputation enhanced as the ?Special One?, but things were very different just about two weeks ago. He was skating on thin ice with rumours growing louder by the day of players? revolt. Mourinho was probably just one defeat away from losing his Real Madrid job as the Copa del Rey semi-finals against Barcelona loomed. He won that fixture emphatically, then defeated the archrivals again in La Liga. The win against United in the Champions League round of 16 was the icing on the cake. Now, he is just three wins away to become the first manager in the history of the game to win the European Cup with three different clubs.
About 4,000 miles away, the tale of another champion followed a similar pattern. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was under huge pressure, going into the series against Australia. A game-changing double hundred and two wins later, he has now become India?s most successful Test captain with 22 victories under his belt.
Mourinho and Dhoni are two completely different types. One is an extrovert, prone to histrionics. The other has an unflappable exterior and is always willing to keep his own counsel. It was always difficult to read what was going through Dhoni?s mind when the team was losing.
A home defeat against Alastair Cook?s England, which came on the heels of eight consecutive overseas Test losses, was the lowest point. No Indian captain has survived after such a debacle. Just one bad series against the mighty West Indies was enough for Kapil Dev to lose his captaincy within a year of winning the World Cup. But Dhoni was persisted with. The Australia series, however, was his last opportunity. Another fall and even the all-powerful BCCI president Narayanaswami Srinivasan couldn?t have saved him. A hard nut that he is, Dhoni got going when the going got extremely tough.
At 196/4, India?s fate was hanging in balance in Chennai. Australia had already posted 380 in their first innings and James Pattinson was spitting fire. Dhoni?s counter attack was breathtaking. His maiden double hundred in Test cricket was not just a career-defining innings for him, it also sent the Aussies scurrying for covers. The tourists, already 0-2 down, are yet to get over the shock and India are just two wins away from completing the whitewash.
After the series against England, even some very respected voices in Indian cricket were calling for Dhoni?s head. Now, they are backing him to stay at the helm till the 2019 World Cup. By 2019, Dhoni will be 39 and leading the team to a World Cup seven years hence might be beyond him. But for the moment, he has regained his aura which was fading fast. Mourinho has had a Cristiano Ronaldo to turn his fortunes. Dhoni did it on his own, lifting his team in the process.
Public memory is short and in sport, a person is usually measured by his last performance. Mourinho is into management and his challenges are different. In fact, as a coach, he is completely dependent on his players. Dhoni is his own master because as a cricketer he can change the course of a match with his performance. But as a captain he, too, has to depend on his teammates for results. If India win the ongoing series convincingly, Dhoni will carry forward the feel-good factor to South Africa which is India?s next Test assignment. That series later this year, however, will be a real test of character. Facing the number one in their lair will separate the men from the boys and Dhoni will have to play a very crucial role to guide a team that is in transition. Like Mourinho, Dhoni, too, loves to take challenges head on.
This is a reason why he is so successful as a leader. Like Mourinho, destiny played a part in shaping up his career as well. Mourinho might have ended as a physical education teacher if he hadn?t met Sir Bobby Robson in the early 1990s and worked as his interpreter.
Without the help of his games teacher at DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir in Ranchi, Dhoni, too, could have ended as an Indian Railways clerk, occasionally playing office football. The teacher took a big decision to pick Dhoni as a replacement wicket-keeper when the regular stumper got injured. It was the beginning of a fairytale.
About two weeks ago, Mourinho was staring at an uncertain future at Real Madrid. Now, he is in a position to go out on his own terms.
Dhoni, too, seemed to have reached the point of no return after the loss against England. Typical of the man, he has turned the tide with his willow.
Destiny?s children never go out with a whimper.