When Dhoni's silence hurt a nation
MS Dhoni has never run away from a demanding situation; he just isn’t that kind of a person. During the 2011 World Cup final, when the stakes were high, he promoted himself up the order and led India to the title after 28 years. When India lost eight away Tests in a row, he called it a collective failure and was ready to quit Test captaincy if a better replacement was found. After India’s defeat against England at home late last year, Dhoni took the blame on himself and stated in the media that we will not run away from responsibility.
In his entire career, MS Dhoni has never shied away from a difficult situation, until the spot-fixing scandal broke out. When the entire nation eagerly wanted to know what the Indian cricket captain had to say about spot-fixing in IPL, MS Dhoni remained mum. He didn’t bat an eyelid and maintained stoic silence on the questions pertaining to spot-fixing. But Dhoni couldn’t do much, could he? After all, he has been gagged by the BCCI from airing his views on the spot-fixing episode. So it must be wrong to blame the Indian captain for sitting like a mummy and avoiding questions during the Champions Trophy presser, right? Wrong!
As a captain of the Indian cricket team, MS Dhoni not only represents those eleven men on the field, but an entire nation whenever he dons the India jersey. It was his moral responsibility to address the Indian public and tell them keep to believing in their heroes, and that all was not wrong with Indian cricket.
He could have made just one statement and it would have been enough to pacify the millions of cricket loving people of India who consider cricket as a religion, and cricketers as gods. He didn’t have to accuse people, he didn’t have to give out personal details. He just had to say that he believed that it was a sad period for Indian cricket and that his team will try their best to reinstall that faith of the people by winning the Champions Trophy.
How difficult was it for Dhoni to tell the BCCI that he wanted to speak to the people, and that he wanted to restore the lost dignity of Indian cricket among them? Unfortunately, Dhoni didn’t and this is an insult to every single cricket lover of India.
Throughout his career, MS Dhoni has always spoken with utmost honesty and integrity. He may not speak with the audacity of say, a Saurav Ganguly, but Dhoni has never equivocated in his comments and has called a spade a spade when needed, even if that has meant that the senior players have had to bear the brunt of his statements. In a talk-show recently, Gaurav Kalra, sports editor of a leading news channel and someone who has followed Dhoni’s career closely, said that Dhoni is a man with an opinion on most things in life, and it was bizarre to see Dhoni avoid questions related to spot-fixing during the press-conference.
So why didn’t Dhoni speak? Is he scared of N Srinivasan? Or is he simply indebted towards Srinivasan since he was the one who prevented Dhoni from being axed after India lost eight away Tests in a row and therefore did not speak as a sign of gratitude to him? Or is Dhoni himself involved in the whole scandal, considering he is the vice-president of Indian Cements and has had links with Vindoo Dara Dingh? Being a pragmatic person, I will not answer these questions.
What I know is that Indian cricket is in a state of jeopardy at the moment and Dhoni’s silence has hurt the fans. Another thing that hurt the people is that none of the legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev or Sunil Gavaskar have come out and made any statement on the biggest malaise in Indian cricket since 2000. Only Rahul Dravid had the courage to show his disappointment on the fixing saga when he called the whole scandal like bereavement.
But if you consider the events of the past two weeks, the whole fixing saga must have been really tough for Dhoni. Chennai Super Kings‘ ‘enthusiast’ Gurunath Meiyappan had been arrested on betting charges while Dhoni’s relation with Vindoo Dara Singh, the alleged mediator between Bookies and underworld, raised many eyebrows. Dhoni’s image itself took a beating, but rather than facing the whole situation boldly, Dhoni decided to duck the issue. It seems like if given a choice between facing a question of how to instil faith in the fans that everything would be “fair” during Champions Trophy or a Dale Steyn at 150kmph on 6th June at Cardiff, Dhoni would gleefully choose the latter. And this is sad for Indian cricket.
MS Dhoni will have to make some tough decisions now; something he loves doing on the cricket field. But this time, the question isn’t about field placements or batting orders, it is about morality and ethics. Dhoni has to decide whether he wishes to remain a corporate employee of the BCCI, or behave like a leader of the India cricket team. He has to decide whether he wishes to toe BCCI’s line in future too or whether he wants to end his career as someone who stood up for the cricket fans of this nation. I hope it’s the latter; otherwise, the board running cricket in India may win, but Indian cricket will lose.