Dhoni's para jump, Sachin's Sky Walk and other things cricketers do for an adrenaline rush

Even as the Indian team is is fighting it out to level the ongoing Test series in Sri Lanka, former Test captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is using his retirement fruitfully to fulfil a childhood dream by training with the Indian Army.

Dhoni, who was inducted as an honorary Lieutenant-Colonel in the elite Parachute Regiment in 2011, is currently training with his regiment in Agra. Being part of the Army has always been one of his aspirations and back in 2012, he had even said that he would definitely want to serve the Army actively once he bids adieu to the game.

On Wednesday, Mahi, as he is fondly called,  successfully completed his first para jump  from an AN-32 transport aircraft from a height of 1,250 feet. He jumped with a canopy static line parachute from the aircraft and touched down at the Malpura dropping zone near Agra.  He repeated the  performance on Thursday as well. He has to now undertake two more jumps from 10,000 feet, including one at night, to be a qualified parajumper. And judging by his enthusiasm, he will qualify soon enough.

It was Dhoni himself who chose this regiment as he wanted to fly, literally. In an interview with The Times of India , he had said, “I have made a real study of manoeuvres, of geography and physics, and of mental application to various challenges. I had the choice of four regiments but chose a fifth, the Parachutes, because it is a hundred per cent volunteer regiment. I felt I would be able to contribute more with them later in life. I believe I know enough to justify the honour and was worthy of it. One day I will train with them and I will jump with them too because I am keen to truly earn my wings.”

This isn’t the first time that the daredevil inside Dhoni has surfaced. No, we are not talking about his penchant to take run chases till the final balls or standing up to the stumps to fast bowlers. The Indian ODI captain is known to have an adventurous streak that has seen him to undertake several high adrenaline activities over the years.

Earlier this year, as India spent months in Australia for a Test and ODI series followed by the ICC Cricket World Cup, Dhoni decided to take a break and unwind by going to an adventure park  for ’trekking and fishing’. He was joined by pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Mohit Sharma, in what was described as a ‘boot camp’ by some media outlets. “Dhoni, Bhuvi, Ishant and Mohit have gone to an artificial ‘Adventure Sport Park’, which is around 150 kms from Adelaide. The particular ‘Adventure Sport Park’ has all facilities like trekking, fishing and boating,” a senior BCCI official had told PTI. Now that must have been some adventure!

Dhoni’s need for speed, apart from his brisk scoring rate, is evident in his love for biking as well. An avid biker, Dhoni owns the most sophisticated cars and bikes, calling them his ‘babies’ and ’toys’. In fact, he has been known to take out his fast machines on the roads of Ranchi. But the one place where he could really indulge himself was the Buddh International Circuit, India’s Formula 1 track in Noida. At the inauguration of the Bike Festival of India in 2014, Dhoni lead a team of 11 bikers that raced a lap at the F1 track, on a Yamaha R1. Another time Dhoni rode his ‘X132 Hellcat’ on the 5.14 km-long circuit. Clearly, Dhoni loves the adrenaline rush speed gives him.

But when it comes to an adrenaline ‘high’, no cricketer can beat former New Zealand player who Adam Parore who became the first international cricketer to climb Mt Everest in 2011. He had failed in his first attempt, but he was successful the second time as he reached the highest peak in the world despite running out of oxygen and “freaking out” several times on his way up. “I’m a bit buggered and sick and tired of not being able to breathe. I’m trashed physically, totally destroyed,” Parore was quoted by PTI after his climb.

And while a Kiwi got high near India, the Indian team sought a collective adrenaline high in New Zealand. Back in 2009, several Indian cricketers did the ‘Sky Walk’, a harnessed walk atop the 192-metre  Auckland Sky Tower — the tallest man made structure in the Southern Hemisphere. These included Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh.  Such was the extreme exhilaration of the walk that Sachin Tendulkar called it “one of the scariest experiences of my life”. We wonder how Dhoni would have reacted if he had done the walk. He would have probably taken on a ‘Sky Jump’ too.

But while the Indian team used adventure sport for recreation, the South African team actually undertook training at a base camp in Switzerland meant for explorers. In a 2012 blog written by Paddy Upton , he recounted his experience of visiting explorer Mike Horn training camp, where the Proteas in some rigorous hiking, mountain-biking and other adventure sports. Upton said that this pre-tour camp helped the team become mentally tougher and they went on to beat England and clinch the No 1 test rankings.  “AB de Villiers said that he had never been that exhausted in his life, and that he pushed harder than he had ever had before,” Upton wrote. Knowing the athletic capabilities of ABD, we cannot even imagine the strenuous exercise he undertook.

Another cricketer who seems to be quite an adrenaline ‘junkie’ is former England star Andrew Flintoff. After quitting cricket and despite being plagued by injuries, Freddie decided to turn into a professional boxer in his 30s. He began his boxing career with a narrow victory over Richard Dawson in 2012. However that’s the only pro match he has competed in so far and in 2015 said, “Sometimes, there’s a fine line between bravery and utter stupidity. The day I decided to climb into a boxing ring for a professional fight was probably on the side of stupidity,” according to Sunday Express . He has also participated in  Australia’s version of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!, a reality show with celebs surviving in the wild and actually ate a cockroach onscreen!

When it comes to cricketers-turned-fighters, Adam Hollioake is probably the most successful. The former England captain  is the only international cricketer to compete professionally in mixed martial arts (MMA) and as a boxer.

(With agency inputs)