MS Dhoni - The most successful captain of India

[ajaybaskar]

Dhoni not thirsting for revenge

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is not thirsting for revenge. Not even the worst tour in the modern age for Team India seems to have forced him out of his philosophical vein of thinking. He believes it is simply a matter of going back to basics, which is a sensible enough principle in cricket. Except that the Indian cricket fans will be baying for blood.

To lose eight out of nine completed games is a fate that is almost unique to a modern touring team. To have lost a game after scoring in excess of 300 must be considered the worst performance by a bowling team. Not even hitting such a nadir seems to have upset the player who, till not so long ago, was acknowledged as the best captain in contemporary world cricket.

The reasons for such a bad performance are not far to seek. A devastating string of injuries to several of the players who made it possible for India to climb and stay as the world's top Test team for 20 months and to many of those who also created the World Cup victory just a bit over five months ago meant Team India was never at full strength. The loss of nine men to injury was far too debilitating.

The several close finishes in the limited-overs segment that also included an extraordinary tie, which could have ended in two other results, may be pointers to where Team India's real merits lie. The Test mace has been handed over with great dignity to England and it will take a long time for India to get it back. Make no mistake - Team India's future lies with the white ball, which is why Dhoni's men should be looking for quick revenge over England who won the T-20 in a canter despite India's fighting total and drew away to a 3-0 ODI win against a battling India. To say you should not let a 'revenge-like feeling' drive you to desperation in performance is not practical. The road forward should begin with a 'brownwash' of England in the one-day series next month.

Dhoni makes the valid point that this is not the time to sulk. But he should know more than anyone else that the blame for the shambolic show in England lies as much with the players as with the cricket board. The board erred by packing too much cricket in a greedy Unca Scrooge kind of way while the players themselves were not far behind in accepting any workload so long as the pay envelope could be stuffed in their pockets.

A greedy Board and selfish players had paid scant regard to a significant series against England in which the top Test ranking would be at stake. England's plans to steal the top spot from India were hatched long ago but BCCI treated the series as a joke. Team India came in dribs and drabs to England, having neither the time nor a plan to prepare properly for a top-notch series.

The philosopher king of Indian cricket, Dhoni now says, "Every side, every individual makes a mistake. But as long as you are learning from your mistake that's good enough." Fair enough, life rolls on such thinking even amid the gloom. It was good to note the skipper taking the trouble to list the few positives that were there to be seen even in such a dismal series.

Truth to tell, the rub of the green was also not India's even if it must be accepted that champion teams are supposed to make their own fortunes even in the face of adversity. There were times when it did seem God was an Englishman. Every rain break seemed to favour the home side. Also, the coach Duncan Fletcher and Dhoni lamented that whenever Team India set out for the nets more often than not it was raining and they had to switch sessions to indoor practice.

Whatever BCCI and the players do from here on the England results cannot be changed. If the disaster helps change attitudes on the part of both, Indian cricket may climb back to the peaks again, however long that journey to the top takes this time. It will, however, make very little difference if Indian cricket carries on in the same mode - IPL and Champions League first and everything else afterwards.

Again, it is the leaders who have to show the way. Dhoni, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and Zaheer Khan helped India climb to the top. They would have to shape the future by showing they are prepared to change their attitude too in order to help Team India recover from these lows. Are they prepared to make the sacrifices all over again is the million dollar question that modern day cricket millionaires will have to answer.