The fickle minded Indian Cricket fan
After India’s thrilling one-run victory over Bangladesh in the Word T20 match, my Facebook wall was full of posts praising the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. We Indians love the game of cricket and we do not hide our emotions when it comes to cricket.
Reading through these posts and numerous articles gave me a feeling that if there is one hero in India then it is MS Dhoni. His moves, like asking Hardik Pandya to bowl the final over or his decision to take off the gloves and run towards the stump in the last ball of the match has come in for special praise.
I am happy that the Indian public and the media acknowledged the feats of India’s best ever wicket-keeper batsman. But at the same time, my body shivers at the thought of the things that would have happened had India lost the match against Bangladesh. So, here is an attempt to create a parallel universe in which India loses this match and it’s repercussions on the team as well as on skipper Dhoni.
An article from the Parallel Universe
Yesterday was a heartbreaking match for the Indian cricket team and it’s fan as the home team lost a closely fought match against Bangladesh. With this loss, the chances for the Indian team to qualify for the semi-finals has gone down considerably. There have been some reports of stones being thrown at the houses of Indian cricketers. In fact, following the loss security has been beefed-up around skipper MS Dhoni’s house in Ranchi.
Talking about the match, skipper Dhoni has come in for severe criticism for giving the last over to rookie Hardik Pandya. Pandya was unable to stop the Bangladeshis from scoring 11 runs in the last over of the match.
Experts felt that Dhoni should have instead handed the ball in the last over to an experienced campaigner like Yuvraj Singh especially since it was a turning wicket. It may be noted that Yuvraj did not bowl a single over in the match. Another of Dhoni’s miscalculation was when on the last ball of the match, he did not attempt a direct hit from behind the stumps and instead ran towards the stump to attempt a run-out.
Even Dhoni’s performance with the bat has been blamed for the loss. He scored an unbeaten 13 runs from 12 balls and never looked in control of the innings. Dhoni had in fact refused a single off the second last ball of the Indian innings when the batsman at the other end was Ravichandran Ashwin. Dhoni was able to score only two runs off the last ball of the innings and since Ashwin himself is no muck with the bat; Dhoni’s refusal was strange.
In such a low scoring match, the importance of every run is important and Dhoni is definitely not the finisher that he once used to be.
It would be interesting to see, how India performs in their last match against Australia. But time is definitely ticking for Dhoni and if India fails to qualify for the semi-finals his days as captain are limited.
Back to Reality
Now, come back to the real world where Dhoni was probably the prime reason for India’s victory and you would realise the fickle-minded psyche of Indian fans as well as its media. One loss (in the parallel universe) and Dhoni was portrayed as a villain. In the imaginary world’s outcome, we conveniently forgot his exploits of the past. I agree that if India had lost, the captain Dhoni was liable for scrutiny; but there has to be a balance somewhere.
Even after the victory, I am sure there are many critics who will call Dhoni as a lucky captain and how he is not as good as Sourav Ganguly. But that’s a debate which I will save for another day. For these critics, I will just quote the late Australian captain and commentator Richie Benaud - “Captaincy is 90 percent luck and 10 percent skill. But don’t try it without that 10 percent”. So, yes Dhoni might be lucky but he has earned the luck with his hard work.
Stand behind your captain, especially during tough times
On a lighter note, my advice to the Indians fans for the days when Dhoni’s on-field gamble does not come off, just remember the legendary lines by Amitabh Bachchan from the Bollywood blockbuster Sholay “Ab jue mein roz roz to jeet nahi sakta hai” (You cannot win daily in gambling).
After all, cricket is a sport and one cannot win daily in any sport. Dhoni gambles on the cricket field based on his judgement of the game which is much better than us spectators and his gambles have given us more joy than sadness. So, just trust your captain and stand behind him even when the going gets tough.