Stumped?: Dhoni with model Deepika Padukone

There’s something about Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Ask Haseena Nasreen, who broke through the cop cordon outside Eden Gardens on Sunday to get close enough to her hero to hug him and wish him happy birthday two months in advance. While this 18-year-old’s act was OTT (over-the-top), there are many other female fans who would love to go the Mahi way. So what’s with Dhoni that makes girls who can’t tell a catch from a stumping, a drive from a hook, sing crazy kiya re for him?

His beauty is hair deep

Is Dhoni good-looking? We are not sure. Does it matter? No, because this 25-year-old has that hair. His straight shoulder-length style has spawned an entire league of lookalikes. Girls go gaga when those locks go flying. One angry fan might have chopped off his hair after India’s dismal World Cup show, but a little thing like that isn’t enough to put off the true devotee.

Yet Dhoni’s tresses were not always a talking point. When he started out, the 6-ft-2 cricketer wore his hair short and spiky. We don’t even remember those days. What we do remember are the various shades he has embellished his head with, since. We also recall the longer look of before, which curled softly at the ends. But this layered and straightened helmet is even more eye-catching!

And we are in luck, because as long as the hard-hitting wicket-keeper is on the field, he is likely to hang on to the long look. He is apparently superstitious about it. That’s not cool, but we will overlook it.

He has attitude

Let’s face it, Dhoni is not the best-looking boy in blue. Yuvraj Singh is a hottie, Irfan Pathan is sweet and sexy, Rahul Dravid was a looker till he wore the crown of thorns. So why is Mahi the one worth breaching security cordons for? Call it the X-factor. Call it machismo.

Call it attitude. If there’s anyone who can give steaming John Abraham a fair chase, it’s got to be fellow-biker Dhoni. On screen or off, he is very aggressive and very male, without losing that metrosexual touch (coming back to the hair again).

And like most attractive men, he knows what he does to the gal gang. “Mujhse bhi cool,” is what he says in the Orient PSPO fan advertisement.

“Self-confidence has always been one of my good qualities. I am always very confident. It is in my nature to be confident, to be aggressive,” Dhoni has been heard saying. But his aggression doesn’t ever turn into arrogance. His disarming smile is proof of that. He is still real enough to allow Haseena to snuggle up to him.

He can walk the walk

Picture this: Sourav Ganguly selling Sona Chandi with blue hair and dhoti. Nah. Then, catch this shot: Dhoni selling Brylcreem with pink hair and cool suit. Yeah, we buy that one.

It has to be said that Dhoni, MTV’s Youth Icon of the Year, is a great clotheshorse. Like in the Siyaram’s ad, where he is one of the few good men who can do justice to a suit. We believe it. John Abraham admits to being an ardent fan of the Dhoni style of play; Pervez Musharraf admits to being an admirer of the Dhoni style of hair.

He’s richie rich

Dhoni is the intelligent investor’s choice. So what if Videocon dropped him as a brand ambassador and the record 23 endorsements in a year has dropped to 17?

This man is still raking in the moolah. And just think of all that stuff you will get free from Brylcreem, Reebok, Mysore Sandal Soap, TVS, Siyaram’s, Reliance Communication, GE Money, Titan Sonata, Castrol, Orient Fans… And all the places you could travel to watch him shoot for the commercials, and sometimes to even watch him play.

He’s a suitable boy

Money means nothing if you have to play second fiddle. That is why even the most determined gold-digger would have to give Sachin, with his rumoured annual income of Rs 40 crore, a miss. What turns M.S. Dhoni’s charms into an irresistible babe magnet is his status as eligible bachelor. There was once some kind of link with fellow Jharkhand hottie Tanushree Dutta , but that is history.

The TINA factor

It doesn’t say much of our manly cricket team, but there is no alternative (TINA) to Dhoni when it comes to the hound-and-hug game. Sorry, the rest are just not up to it.