interview questions on dhoni
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Can you share your secret for staying cool under pressure?
Being prepared will always keep you cool. Whether you are a student or a pro athlete you have to get into the zone. The zone is a state of performing with zero friction. Practice and preparation will always help you perfect your skills and get you in the zone. If your skills go up, stress goes down. Psychologists say that 10,000 hours of practice will always get you to your goal! There's this scene in the movie where my dad lets me go off to play a cricket tournament just before my exam. I still remember what he said to me: "If you've studied and worked throughout the year, then there's no problem if you go off to play today. If you haven't studied every day then one day is not going to make a difference."
My dad used to wake me up at dawn every day to study for two hours throughout my years at DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir because my evenings were crowded with football and cricket practice. Being regular and deliberate with your preparations keeps the pressure away at crunch time.
Some critics have accused you of taking gut decisions.
It might appear to some people that I am going with my gut, but I have done a lot of research, put careful thought into probable outcomes. Look at it this way, if someone puts down a stock 38mm carburetor in front of you and you know nothing about bikes then you won't know what it is and won't do anything. On the other hand, if you are a adept at carburetors then it will take you seconds to tune it and have a bike running. The more you pay attention to the outcome of trusting your intuition in combination with studied facts, the better your decision-making.
You faced a tug-of-war between job security and playing cricket.
You know the kind of importance middle class families give to job security. And, it's fair enough because as a sportsman you have a 8 to 12-year-long career, but how are you going to take care of the other 40 years of your life? Naturally, it was a very tough decision for me. When I was 18, I got a job in the railways as a ticket collector. It was a good job. In India, it is difficult to get a government job, but it is even more difficult to get fired from one! My parents did not want me to lose the security of a government job. So it was a tough decision. Once job security enters the frame you really have to weigh everything carefully.
Can you use criticism to give yourself a competitive edge?
The film touches on our victory at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in the 2011 World Cup final, but I want to talk about something else. The criticism that the Indian team received after the defeat in the 2007 World Cup was a big turning point in my life.
When we landed, we had to get out of the airport in a police van. I was sitting next to Viru [Virender Sehwag] paaji. It was late in the night and we were travelling at a decent speed...but media cars followed us with their cameras and big lights, it felt as if we had committed a big crime, maybe like a murderer or terrorist. We were actually chased by the media and ducked into a police station. My house in Ranchi was pelted with stones.
That criticism actually had a big impact on me. Rather than sitting and cribbing about it I decided to channelize the aggression to become a better cricketer and a better human being. Sometimes you can definitely use criticism to give yourself a competitive edge.
Any tips for student-athletes?
Dare to dream.
What's your personal mantra?
What works for me is to keep things simple in life. Cricket is a simple sport: You see the ball, you hit the ball. But you can make it complex: is it an inswing or an outswing, is it a yorker or a bouncer? You can keep on adding layers of complexity to the game and this applies to your life too. But if you are honest to yourself, you will take good decisions.
Being prepared will always keep you cool. Whether you are a student or a pro athlete you have to get into the zone. The zone is a state of performing with zero friction. Practice and preparation will always help you perfect your skills and get you in the zone. If your skills go up, stress goes down. Psychologists say that 10,000 hours of practice will always get you to your goal! There's this scene in the movie where my dad lets me go off to play a cricket tournament just before my exam. I still remember what he said to me: "If you've studied and worked throughout the year, then there's no problem if you go off to play today. If you haven't studied every day then one day is not going to make a difference."
My dad used to wake me up at dawn every day to study for two hours throughout my years at DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir because my evenings were crowded with football and cricket practice. Being regular and deliberate with your preparations keeps the pressure away at crunch time.
Some critics have accused you of taking gut decisions.
It might appear to some people that I am going with my gut, but I have done a lot of research, put careful thought into probable outcomes. Look at it this way, if someone puts down a stock 38mm carburetor in front of you and you know nothing about bikes then you won't know what it is and won't do anything. On the other hand, if you are a adept at carburetors then it will take you seconds to tune it and have a bike running. The more you pay attention to the outcome of trusting your intuition in combination with studied facts, the better your decision-making.
You faced a tug-of-war between job security and playing cricket.
You know the kind of importance middle class families give to job security. And, it's fair enough because as a sportsman you have a 8 to 12-year-long career, but how are you going to take care of the other 40 years of your life? Naturally, it was a very tough decision for me. When I was 18, I got a job in the railways as a ticket collector. It was a good job. In India, it is difficult to get a government job, but it is even more difficult to get fired from one! My parents did not want me to lose the security of a government job. So it was a tough decision. Once job security enters the frame you really have to weigh everything carefully.
Can you use criticism to give yourself a competitive edge?
The film touches on our victory at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in the 2011 World Cup final, but I want to talk about something else. The criticism that the Indian team received after the defeat in the 2007 World Cup was a big turning point in my life.
When we landed, we had to get out of the airport in a police van. I was sitting next to Viru [Virender Sehwag] paaji. It was late in the night and we were travelling at a decent speed...but media cars followed us with their cameras and big lights, it felt as if we had committed a big crime, maybe like a murderer or terrorist. We were actually chased by the media and ducked into a police station. My house in Ranchi was pelted with stones.
That criticism actually had a big impact on me. Rather than sitting and cribbing about it I decided to channelize the aggression to become a better cricketer and a better human being. Sometimes you can definitely use criticism to give yourself a competitive edge.
Any tips for student-athletes?
Dare to dream.
What's your personal mantra?
What works for me is to keep things simple in life. Cricket is a simple sport: You see the ball, you hit the ball. But you can make it complex: is it an inswing or an outswing, is it a yorker or a bouncer? You can keep on adding layers of complexity to the game and this applies to your life too. But if you are honest to yourself, you will take good decisions.
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