Lets be reasonable
We can not be acting too funny by putting entire blame on Dhoni for some of his decisions in the crucial match against England on 14th June. I say its funny because for similar decisions or sometimes even more amusing decisions taken by Dhoni, when worked, we made a king out of him. And today when it hasn’t worked out, we are ready to give him all the blame in the world.
If we take him to the heights for choosing Joginder for the last over in 1st T20 World Cup final over, I do not see any reason why we should be bashing him for choosing Ravindra Jadeja to bat at 4. This decision was logically better than the Joginder one. One ok or ordinary sort of decision makes you king and one reasonably good decision offers you defamation – funny world.
Problem about such instinct based decision making is, you are judged by the result of that decision and not the quality of thinking. We tend to forget that decision is taken when one does not know the result. This can sound obvious or even ridiculous, but isn’t that what it is? Go by the book is not the best option always (if it was, Dravid would still be captaining India). Captain can not be bookish, he got to work on instincts and back his own instincts. When they do not work, as a captain you find yourself on wrong side, but if you keep working as the book says, you will definitely find yourself as somebody who is a non-achiever.
Suddenly, there have been a lot of talks and whispers about Dhoni batting at 3. So what? What’s the problem? He has done it before; it has worked or not worked a few times. How has it become a big problem now? “He should not be batting before Raina…”…hello… do we think it was right that he batted before Dravid, Yuvraj and Rohit Sharma in the past? Today some reporter is asking him questions like, “When will you start hitting sixes again – start playing like what you used to?” If India hadn’t lost the game, we would have still showered praises on Dhoni for having successfully geared himself to play anchor types innings; captain’s innings; so called!
This has happened in the past and will keep repeating; faces will change.
We celebrated Ganguly for fighting with selectors to get young guns in and then blamed his demanding style as arrogance and bias for some players. We hyped Greg Chappell’s theories of having youngsters and building team for 2007 ODI World Cup. When we got the result of World Cup, we threw him out and blamed for destroying Indian cricket. We took captain Dravid to heights by saying ‘he deserves’ because of methodic approach and then we blamed him for being bookish, weak and non-innovative.
Now, its Dhoni’s turn. For some of the common sense moves (which any cricketer would have done), we said ‘great captaincy’ and now for some of his not-so-bad decisions we say ‘poor captaincy’. Earlier we called him ‘cool’, ‘straight-forward’ etc, now we call him ‘arrogant’. You are crowned and within no time, you find yourself on the streets where each person in your kingdom is thirsty for your blood.
Praising somebody is a free choice but while defaming we need to be more responsible, more reasonable, rather.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Offcourse our media should be More resonable but the fact is it is not ! Dhoni knows it better than anyone else .Problem with Dhoni is he has stared reacting to media.You dont have to show your sentiments in press meet as he did on Sehwag issue!Kapil was sentimental and lost his job soon after world cup. I hope Dhoni is smarter !
“Dhoni the youth icon ” is a media product. He was good captain , made to look extraordinary by some heroics from Yuvraj and some good fortune!
But he can surely become extraordinary captain provided he bounces back from this situation and still belives in his instincts! But its important for Dhoni to realise powerfull six hitting is his strength ,please man bank on it!
June 16th, 2009 at 5:27 am
Media is a reflection of mass.
Hum log dekhata hai is liye aisa stories banata hai! However, I want atleast those people to be reasonable who love the sport and do not fall for some hypothetical emotional wave.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I had never called Mr. Dhoni as “Cool or Straight forward”…he has so called “Attitude”
I dont understand, why Mangesh is trying to defend Mr. Dhoni. Whatever justification, Mangesh had tried for Dhoni playing at No. 3, is OK / acceptable for one day or Test….
why Mr. Dhoni should play down the order is because, it is threatening for opposition that yuvi, dhoni, yusuf are still to come; even India is down by 2-3 wickets.
Raina has proved very very successful at No. 3 in IPL, so I dont see any other batting position for him; especially when you have such a less time for preparing for WC 20-20 2009.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Let me make clear one thing that I’m not at all supporting what Indian Media is doing, rather I’m not watching what they are showing….
June 17th, 2009 at 3:20 am
Anil, I don’t think think you have said anything which I have any problem with, because you were reasonable in what all you have said. My problem is against unreasonable blaming.
June 17th, 2009 at 3:20 am
It’s not a question of defending Dhoni. Anil, please read again. I also have a problem in calling some of very normal and common sensical moves as ‘great captaincy’. Again….the appeal is for being reasonable.
It’s not a justification for Dhoni playing at 3. It’s an objection against superficial analysis. Please read again.
“It is threatening for opposition that yuvi, dhoni, yusuf are still to come; even India is down by 2-3 wickets”…you can’t guarantee that it will work. See the example of England match itself. All your 3 giants were not out even if India had lost 2-3 wkts.
Compare this theory with another one - your best guys should get maximum overs. Theory sounds equally good. But you can not typify that one of them is ‘the best’ strategy. That is why you got to be sensitive and take instinct based calls. When the result is fine, you will be called great captain; otherwise you will be blamed the way Dhoni is getting now. This is where we need to be reasonable.
Boss….why don’t people find technical and tactical flaws when team is winning? Do you think Joginder bowling last over was the best decision on the planet? Why didn’t people write against Dhoni, something like, “he did not manage his bowlers quota well and that’s why he had to call Joginder”. Why didn’t we write earlier that Rohit Sharma is not a regular opener (but one of the best in the middle order), asking him to open is a tactical flaw. Why didn’t we write it before that RP Singh is the best and the most in-form bowler in 20-20 format, he must play.
June 17th, 2009 at 3:20 am
Had Ravindra Jadeja scored 1 or 2 boundaries more in his innings (may be inside edges or top edges also)….we would have been celebrating….wouldn’t we? Had Yuvraj not misfielded Harbhajan’s wide which went for 5 wides, we would have been celebrating. If any English bowler had conceded 5 wides, we would have been celebrating? So on and so forth…. So many small small things here and there. Defeat in a 20-20 match (rather any match - especially 20-20) is not necessarily due to tactical flaws.
I am also writing all these things because the result is bad. If result was good, we would not be bothered about what went right and what went wrong. And this is exactly what my problem is.
June 17th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
there you are….again & again, everybody is just talking about the IND VS ENG game only….I’m commenting about the overall performance of Indian team in WC 2009….and I think that as a whole Indian team played with very very incorrect approach & attitude; for which as a captain Dhoni should be blamed….I hope this clarifies my intention…e.g. If you could please read my previous blog, I’m not supporting “Rohit as a openong batsman”.
June 17th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I completely agree with you that for 20-20, you cannot have fixed batting order…..
June 17th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Apart from Mr. Dhoni’s failure, if we start listing about the probable reasons; then our list will never end. Becasue, in all the departments BCCI’s Indian team failed…while writing my previous blog on 12th June, I was optimistic and tried to highlight the weak areas; but alas….
As a whole, we can say that our Think tank failed to respond and incorrect strategy helped India to get defeated…
June 18th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Hang on Anil,… are baba, why are you defending yourself while replying to my blog/comments. I do not have anything against what you have said, because you were reasonable as your analysis was before the England match. You had raised concerns before Indian team’s exit. My problem is people talking about tactical mistakes and all that after England match. My problem is about the doctors who had said, (let me take a brutal sounding example) “Dhoni is 100% healthy a few days back and the same doctors are giving post mortem report saying Dhoni died out of cancer”! Hope you could figure out that my attack is on those doctors and not you.
June 18th, 2009 at 2:40 am
Hope you have read my earlier comment - “Submitted on 2009/06/17 at 3:20am
Anil, I don’t think think you have said anything which I have any problem with, because you were reasonable in what all you have said. My problem is against unreasonable blaming.”
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