LONDON, July 20 (PTI): It�s a privilege for anyone to step on the hallowed turf at the �Home of Cricket� and India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is no exception as he prepares to lead his bunch of world beaters in the first Test at the Lord�s tomorrow.
Dhoni, says that the experience of leading his team out at Lord�s on Thursday will be an honour to rank with anything he has achieved in his glorious career.
�It�s obviously big, leading 15 people who have the expectation of 1.2 billion,� Dhoni told The Daily Telegraph.
�It�s an honour, it�s very special. But at the same time it�s an added responsibility. You want the Indian team to win each and every game, which is not possible. Still, that�s what you are expected to do.�
The �Captain Cool� during the interview has spoken about how at times he feels like moving far away from the madding crowd on one of his 25 motorbikes.
�If get the chance,� he says, �Somewhere in Delhi or Mumbai, I will take my bike out, take the helmet with me and go around for a ride.�
The family man in him comes out once he starts talking about his family.
�Since 2005, I have not spent much time with my family,� he said, thinking back to the year of his Test debut against Sri Lanka.
�In fact, I have spent more time at the Taj Landsend in Mumbai. It was my 100th visit recently, which means I have spent more than 400 days in that hotel, and that is a lot more than I have spent with my family.�
Talking about his parents, Dhoni got a touch emotional.
�I feel awful as I am talking right now,� he added, �because I miss my parents. But at the same time I know I will have fair amount of time with my parents once I finish cricket, after these two, or three, or four years - whatever it is.
�My wife tells me when I am not around at the house, 80 per cent of the conversation is about me. But I told my dad, this is the time when I am doing something for the country, and the country comes first. I feel he really understands that.�
Dhoni also spoke about how he first came into the limelight.
�It was a 35-over game, the school league final,� he said. �I scored 213, and hit seven or eight sixes, and those were big sixes, I was quite famous in Ranchi from quite early.�
When he started off, Indian cricket industry wasn�t a billion dollar one so people were circumspect about his choice of profession.
�In those days,� he recalls, �people would say, �OK you play cricket but what do you do in life?� So he took a job as a railway ticket collector in Kharagpur, a town in West Bengal.
�I played for Central Coalfields Limited and for Indian Airways,� he said.
