Published: Jun 19, 2015, 02:14 PM (IST)
Edited: Jun 19, 2015, 04:13 PM (IST)
Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is widely hailed as a role model in terms of sportsmanship; he epitomises the term ‘cricket is a gentleman’s game’. He’s been one of the coolest and calmest minds in the world of cricket. However, during the first One-Day International (ODI) between Bangladesh and India at Shere Bangla Stadium on Thursday he certainly did not live up to his high reputation. The intensity of the match was at the peak as most of the time the hosts dominated the game and were equally supported by the fans. In the end Bangladeshi team registered a record 79-run victory, but it was Dhoni’s collision with the debutant with Mustafizur Rahman that made the headlines. Suraj Choudhari takes a closer look at the incident.
The game of cricket has evolved at a brisk pace. The once “Gentleman’s game”is falling victim to crass commercialism. But there are a few who admiringly remained a gentleman even in this changed environment. And Dhoni has been right up there among that respected and admired men. He has been the benchmark in world cricket when it comes to discipline and etiquettes on the field. He hardly involves himself in arguments and he’s been one of the major reasons behind Chennai Super Kings (CSK) being in the top position in the list of Fair Play Award for most of the seasons in the Indian Premier League (IPL). But there are signs that things are beginning to change now.
In the recently-concluded IPL, he found himself in middle of an unwanted controversy when in the post-match presentation he called umpire Ray Illingworth’s decision ‘horrible’ in the first qualifier against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL. Dwayne Smith had indeed received a bad decision from the umpire, but everyone was taken aback when Dhoni called the decision ‘horrible’ on national television. For a captain of Dhoni’s stature, the comment was unacceptable.
Coming to the present One-Day International (ODI) series between India and Bangladesh, 19-year-old Mustafizur Rahman had a dream debut as he walked away with the man of the match award for his spell of 9.2-0-50-5. The inspiring spell sealed helped Bangladesh beat India. Although he had great start to his international career, he too witnessed the intimidating side of cricket when he collided with Dhoni.
While chasing 308, India got off to a fantastic start but lost their momentum completely in the middle as they lost four wickets in quick succession. Dhoni came into bat and was finding it difficult to get away as the Bangladeshi bowlers were bowling a tight line. In the 25th over, Dhoni played a straight drive off Rahman and charged for a single. It seemed that the bowler deliberately got in the way of the batsman. Dhoni didn’t change his line of running and crashed into the youngster. The bowler had to be taken off the field for medical attention.
Fortunately, the incident didn’t get too heated, as Dhoni didn’t get into any confrontation. One cannot say for sure if Rahman deliberately came in his way or not and at the same time one can’t blame Dhoni directly for the same. Earlier, Rohit Sharma too warned Rahman for his knack of disturbing the batsman while running between the wickets.
Replays clearly showed that Dhoni could have averted that collision. It’s an incident that will surely mar his clean image. Both the cricketers were fined for the incident. While Dhoni was fined 75 percent, debutant Rahman got away with 50 percent. The India-Bangladesh clashes are beginning to get more intense with every game going by the reactions on social media.
(Suraj Choudhari, an avid cricket follower who plays the sport at club level, is a staffer with Criclife)
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