When his daughter was born on 6 February 2015, MS Dhoni was in Australia as the captain of the Indian team, with the crucial India-Pakistan match just over a week away. Dhoni at the time decided not to travel back to India and said “I am on national duty, other things can wait”.
37-year-old Dhoni is no longer the captain of the Indian team but his counsel during the games remains just as important, if not more. And his daughter Ziva who is four now, seem to be even a quicker learner than the World Cup-winning former Indian captain whose on-field quick thinking is unparalleled.
In a video posted on social media, Ziva who has her own Instagram channel with over half a million followers, and dad MS Dhoni are speaking in six different languages.
The former Indian captain asks Ziva in multiple languages, "how are you?"
And the four-year-old Ziva answers in all the six languages - Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Punjabi and Urdu.
Ziva was born just two days before India’s first warm-up game against Australia in the 2015 World Cup. Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai revealed in his book ‘Democracy’s XI: The Great Indian Cricket Story’ that Dhoni’s wife Sakshi had to contact cricketer Suresh Raina to share the news with Dhoni as he wasn’t carrying a mobile phone with him.
As the news broke, Dhoni was asked by journalists whether he missed being in India during his daughter’s birth. ”Not really” was the Dhoni’s response.
“As of now I am on national duties so I think everything else can wait. The World Cup is a very important campaign,” he said.
MS Dhoni ended India’s nearly-three decade long quest for ODI World Cup when he led the team to victory in 2011 World Cup in India. Four years earlier in 2007, he steered the T20 team to lift the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa.
Dhoni is currently captaining his IPL team Chennai Super Kings in the 12th edition of the tournament and had a stupendous start by crushing the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening game.
