A Tribute from One of Us – To The One Who Made It.

Dear Mahi Bhai,

Congratulations on being inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame – a place that now has a soul because you’ve entered it.
I’m writing this not as a fan, but as a fellow cricketer – one who walked the same dusty maidens, played under the same scorching sun, wore torn pads, and dreamt the same dream. I played in your decade, Mahi bhai. Maybe not in packed stadiums, but in league games and zonals where every run mattered like a day’s meal. I had potential – even some medals on the shelf – but life had its plans. Family needed me more than cricket did. So, I folded the whites, packed the kit, and stepped into a job. But I kept watching you.
You were living our dream.

When you sent that six into the Wankhede night sky in 2011, I wasn’t cheering. I was crying. Because one of us – a ticket collector from Ranchi – had made it all the way. You made small-town kids believe that backgrounds don’t decide front-page success.
I’ve followed every step – the Joginder call in 2007, the 183 at Jaipur, your silent walk after your last Test, and that impossible stumping off Kuldeep in 0.08 seconds. While I was stuck in a corporate office, you were showing the world how “calm” can be more lethal than “charisma”.

Greats called you the “best captain” (Tendulkar), “miracle worker” (Warne), “one I’d go to war with” (Kirsten), and even “my captain always” (Virat). But for us, you were hope. You gave us the language of belief – not English or Hindi – but grit, silence, and steel nerves.
People say you’re in the Hall of Fame now. But for us, you were there all along – in gully cricket, in late-night reruns, in every small-town boy who dared to dream with torn shoes.

Thank you for carrying our stories with your bat.Thank you for being the icon who never let success change his roots.Thank you for finishing off in style – always.

– Vijay Shetty, cricket player and cricket analyst.