That repetitive cycle of praise and criticism!

These days when I read newspapers or people sharing their opinion on social networking sites, I see everyone is mad about Dhoni, questioning his creditability as a captain and a batsman, following India’s early exit from T20 world cup. These are the same newspapers or people who were all full of praise for team India after having nailed Pakistan and England like never before. Strange, isn’t it? Then all of the sudden why this criticism? There is no denying that we all re hurt ‘coz the captain cool could not win his THIRD world cup. But is this his failure alone? Is this the case that when resources were overflowing, all batsmen and bowlers were in form and fielders were as energetic and alert as they should be? I guess the answer is no! This is a collective failure of the team and blaming captain alone might help our frustration level to come down but it will not serve the purpose. Look at our openers, what have they done? Not even a single half century from Sehwag and Gambhir in any of the matches. Now compare it with Australia, Srilanka or Westindies. Verdict is : openers failed, means early pressure on the team, means powerplay overs are not utilized, means scores can rarely cross 150. That’s what actually happened. Now let’s move ahead. Middle order was fine, thanks to Kohli. Dhoni and Raina provided late bursts in lower middle order most of the times. Now coming to the bowling, an unfit and out of rhythm Zaheer Khan far away from his best left a weak bowling unit directionless. But still, they made most of whatever they had got and begged all 10 wickets of the opposition on 4 out of 5 occasions. Impressive, isn’t it? Well, now look at most criticized decisions made by Dhoni: first of them was not playing Sehwag against Australia. Now those who had seen South Africa vs Pakistan match, they will agree that it was a valid decision playing 3 spinners. Pitch was turning square and fine performances by Harbhajan and  Piyush in the previous match supported the decision. Now if they had to play 5 bowlers, who else could be dropped to make way for Sehwag: Gautam- no, not after a fine 40 in last match, Kohli- oh no!, yuvi- his bowling alongside glimpses of old Yuvraj were enough for him to be in the team, Rohit- no, he made an unbeaten 50 in last match, Raina- no, he had done nothing wrong, Dhoni- well… So that leaves us with no choice then to keep Viru out. Now next most criticized decision was why bowling Rohit ahead of Ashwin in last super 8 match, well… here I will use critical reasoning. Why nobody objected when Yuvi was given the bowl ahead of Ashwin, coz he begged ABD’s wicket, right!  If he had failed, the same people would have thrashed Dhoni giving an over to yuvi  ahead of Ashwin. A game is played like this only. Some of your decisions fail, some click. And those suggesting removal of Dhoni as captain, please tell me who can replace him? Most of the players are unfit, most of them are out of form.Virat is the only choice they have got and I guess he still has sometime left to be ready for this bigger responsibility. He needs to control his anger and his emotions to grab the most coveted position in the team. It’s so easy for us to pick an individual and kick his ass to express our passion, our support and our concern but logical reasoning and thinking is required at the moment to help the team coming out of this crisis. And I am sure people will again fall for Dhoni once the team beats England and Pakistan in future series. This is a cycle which keeps repeating. Aaah… I will like to end this article with the same quote:

“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.”

Dale Carnegie

MSD for life \m/

He came, He pLayED, He conquered..

I very well remember those days when a wicketkeeper was more like a liability for Indian cricket team. While teams like Srilanka and Australia could boast of Sangakara and Gilchrist as their wicketkeeper, India could never find a keeper who could bat even with half reliability as these giants. Then came MSD, with a reputation of hard hitting batsman from Jharkhand and since then, India have never looked back. However his debut series against Bangladesh could not turn out fruitful for him but he did not take long to impress one and all, thanks to those magnificent match winning innings of 148(against Pakistan) and 183 (against Srilanka). He did not have a very elegant bat swing or effective technique but his power was more than sufficient to destroy some of the finest bowling line ups. All this from a wicketkeeper- India could not have expected more. But for everyone’s delight, best of MSD was yet to come. He kept producing those match winning knocks. Who would forget his finishing streaks with Yuvi during Pakistan series? Not just this, this hard hitting Ranchi boy had a cool , intelligent and thinking head over those powerful shoulders, often evident in his statements during post match presentations. India had found its own combination of calmness of Sanga and destructive batting of Gilchrist. He was being seen as future captain; however it seemed that he might have to wait for it, with team doing well under Rahul and likes of Sehwag and Yuvi ahead of him for captain’s position. But all the equations changed after India’s early exit in 2007 world cup, followed by Rahul’s unexpected resignation as captain after England tour. First ever T20 world cup was on corner, with the famous trio opting out from it. Then came one of the most surprising decision in world cricket, MSD was made captain of Indian cricket team. And boy o boy, this turned out to be perhaps the decision of that decade. He led India to victory in inaugural edition of T20 world championship and thus began the glory days of MSD and team India. In his very first tournament as captain, Dhoni showed that he was a special captain. Often his achievements have been termed as gifts of his luck but was it just luck? Not really! I would like to recall the league match against Pakistan in T20 world cup. Match was initially a tie and was to be decided by bowl out. Well, India won the bowl out and it was not just luck, it was well framed strategy of bowling slow bowlers (Robin Uthappa, Bhajji and Viru) in bowl out as they had better control while Pakistan opted for fast bowlers. And we all remember how many we hit and how many they missed. Not just this, MSD made his bowlers practice for bowl out during net sessions. Was it luck? No, it was his ability to visualize. Bowling Joginder Sharma in final over during the final was not a bad choice. Bhajji was hit for 2-3 sixes in his previous over and Joginder had bowled an economical one. Hence Joginder was the obvious choice. And Dhoni’s field positions were immaculate, else who would have placed Sreesanth to that unorthodox fine leg position during that final over, thus made him claim that catch of Misbah. So every now and then Dhoni has been deprived of the credit he deserves by giving it to his luck. But people never saw that he had made his own luck. His dream beginning as captain was followed by many other victories. He lead both his teams: Team India and CSK to bag many marvelous. India became number one in tests, Dhoni became number one as batsman. However with time, there were many changes to his initial power hitting style of batsman and now he was cautious during initial phase of his arrival on crease and exploded towards the end of innings.

                People often say Ganguly was the best captain of Indian team and Dhoni is the captain of best Indian team. However I differ on this. No doubt Ganguly was a superb captain and he was the one who initialized the resurgence of Indian cricket team but if you really look at players who played under him, you would find he led a better team. Under Saurav, Dravid was the best in the world,  Sachin was in his prime form, Kumble and Bhajji formed the most potent spin duo in the world, Zaheer was young and energetic, Viru was more reliable. Undoubtedly, Dada led a more powerful bowling line up. However Dhoni had to deal with problems of ageing fast bowlers, unavailability of lethal spin bowlers, thanks to Bhajji’s drop in the form and Anil’s retirement. Infact Dravid also was not at his best; however he discovered back his magic towards the end of the career. So undoubtedly, Ganguly was blessed with a better team. 
But keeping the critics aside, Dhoni kept touching heights. Indian team now had a leader, who was innovative, who was unorthordox yet very effective. All these qualities made him earn respect from opponents, ofcourse earning him millions of bucks alongside. Two world cup titles, two IPL titles, one CLt20 titles, CB series victory and many more trophies tell the success story of Dhoni-the captain. However clean sweeps against  England and Australia have raised a question mark on his creditability as captain but needless to say this was collective failure of the team and he alone cannot be blamed. However Dhoni has always loved challenges in his career and the day is not far away when he would wash away whatever doubts are put on him. Today, on his birthday, I pray to God to bless him with much more success, fitness and wisdom. MSD, it’s been a wonderful experience to witness you on cricket field! I am sure you have a lot more in store for us. Amen!

"Rahul Dravid": Mr. Dependable

Those were the early days for me as a cricket lover, early enough for not being able to be recalled exactly but I noticed something in a cricketer which made me follow him every time he came to bat. When Sachin was scripting some of finest wins for India, when nation was busy adoring the magical wristy shots of Azhar, I was being fascinated by a not so liked cricketer those days. I don’t know why, I don’t remember how but I had developed a liking for this man. My friends would often abuse him for his slow batting; making me angry but to be honest I really did not have anything to defend my choice. Today, almost 12-13 years after, when I am writing this article, I must say, I fell for one of the finest man to have played this game.

Things were not easy for Rahul in his initial days, no doubt he had impressed one and all as a test batsman, but his success as one day batsman came somewhat later. He was not blessed with power of Sehwag or ability to dominate the bowling like Sachin did but he kept working hard, kept placing brick  after brick in the wall to make it high enough not to be climbed, strong enough not to be demolished easily. Slowly and steadily he had shown his importance as a one day batsman too. In between he kept producing some marvelous knocks which were often overshadowed by his fellow partners. We often mention Laxman’s magical 281 in Eden’s test but we find it tough to praise Rahul’s gritty 180 in the same match, considering the pressure he was under after being replaced by VVS at no. 3 due to failure in first innings. What was the common thing in Sachin’s 186 against New Zeland or Saurav’s 183 against Srilanka; they were some uncharacteristic flamboyant centuries by Rahul Dravid at the other end. Often denied the respect and credit he deserved, this man kept sacrificing, adjusting and accepting whatever was thrown at him in order to serve the cause as a team man. But it was his ardent character that kept him going and going. When the bowling attacks were hostile, pitches were unplayable, conditions were adverse, he was the perfect man to bat for India. My love for him kept growing and growing. It was not just his batting that was adored but his temperament, his never dying attitude, his calmness, his humility, his character that had a magic far beyond one’s ability to escape. His ever-growing fan list not just included cricket fans like me but likes of Glenn Mcgrath, Brain Lara, Shane Warne and others who chose him as a batsman to bat for saving their lives (if required). Time and again he has been described as a perfect role model for youngsters and rightly so because he is one guy who is a perfect example to tell you that what if you are not born genius, what if you are not so gifted, you have a perfect weapon called hard work which can take you on the top. And boy he made it to the top, didn’t he?! Statistically, he was ICC’s cricketer of the year and test cricketer of the year when these awards were inaugurated. He has achieved some feats which even Sachin (as batsman) and Dhoni (as captain) failed to achieve.

Quoting Harsha Bhogle “There were two things Dravid didn't really love in cricket: opening the batting and keeping wicket. He was asked to do both at various times, and I asked him if he ever contemplated saying no. He didn't enjoy it, he said, but took it as a challenge, to see how good he could be. This acceptance of challenges is what has defined his cricket and made him one of the finest team players there has been.”

Rahul believed in the philosophy “for the strength of the wolf is the pack and the strength of the pack is the wolf.” And he justified this throughout his cricketing career. As mentioned by Harsha, he never enjoyed opening but who could forget his heroics in last Oval test during England tour where he had but ten minutes between deliveries as he batted through the innings for six and a half hours, before returning to open the batting. These magic moments always made us to amaze at the nerves of this cricketer.

Rahul, words cannot describe what you have given to me as your fan. I might be one of those millions of such fans, adoring you for years but for me, you would remain to be one of the finest memories I would like to carry to my grave. Its true cricket would continue at its pace after your retirement, but it would not be the same for me.

Thank you Rahul! Thanks for blessing me with sheer magic!

Aahh… I wish I could rewind the time by a decade or so…. Rahul, you would be missed!