Published: Mar 20, 2011, 09:52 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 14, 2014, 03:39 PM (IST)
By Murali Venkatesan
I know that I should not be appalled, as one knew all along that the backlash was just around the corner. The moment Team India was anointed as the favorites to win the World Cup, expectations were sent soaring into the stratosphere. Adulatory articles were written and the team could do no wrong.
It was simply a matter of time, then, before the knives were out and the team, either collectively, or specific team members, were vilified. The restive voices after India’s less than inspiring performances in the first four matches have turned into a torrent of strident criticism after the loss to South Africa. For a section of the fans, “Captain Cool” turned into “Captain Fool” in the blink of an eye.
It is probably worthwhile at this point to delve into who these “fans” are. The etymology of the word “fan” points to two likely roots. The Latin word, fanaticus, which means “insanely but divinely inspired” is the forerunner to the word modern word fanatic. Fan is simply an abbreviation.
The other less virulent, probable root word, fancy, refers to an intense liking of something. The word, fance, was used for followers of boxing in England and was soon replaced by its homonym, fans. Indian fans have to decide what kind they want to be.
All of us are rooting for the Indian team and intensely feel every little gyration as they make their way through the world cup. It stands to reason that the members of the Indian team would at least be as desperate as the rest of us are to win, none more so than captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. When they turn up on March 20th to take on the West Indies in the last league game, the pressure will be high to begin with.
The constant barrage of negative media reports only add to that pressure. The negative pressure from the crowd during the course of the match makes things worse. In our desire to see our team win, we are doing the very thing that makes their chances of success dimmer.
At the international level, that the cricketers are incredibly talented is a given. What separates the truly great players from the rest is how they handle the pressure. A Sachin Tendulkar, who walks unbowed even after carrying for 20 years the terrible burden of a billion hopes, is a rare entity. He has the ability to put aside the constant chatter around him.
The lesser lights in the team, some of whom are fighting for their place in the team, may not react as well to the pressure. A good example is Piyush Chawla, who was clearly nervous when he started bowling in the Ireland match and the quality of his bowling further dipped after being booed. We, the fans, really let our team down at that point.
Captain Dhoni has ascended the Indian cricketing firmament as very few before him have. I was fortunate to have met him in the Chinnaswamy Stadium many years ago during the course of an India A vs India B practice match. At that time he was fresh from his 183 not out against Sri Lanka.
His eyes lit up when I congratulated him and he spoke briefly to me in halting English. When I watch him on the television, I am wonder struck by the panache with which he handles these intense media interactions. Clearly, he is a man who has evolved off the field as well.
Let us look at a quick list of some of his accomplishments.
* He was not the anointed one expected to fill the second most important job in the country.
* He took over a team which had many seniors in the team.
* His contemporary, Yuvraj Singh, publicly expressed disappointment at not being named the captain.
* Four years on, the team has truly rallied around him and if reports are to be believed, the dressing room ambience is the best it has been in a long time.
* The Indian victory in the inaugural T20 World Cup, the No 1 status in Test cricket, and the No 2 status in ODIs…the results speak for themselves.
* His phenomenal success as the captain of the Chennai Super Kings and the public declaration of international players in the team that Dhoni is the best captain they have played under.
Captain Dhoni is indeed special. Given that he is from an underprivileged background from the cricket-poor state of Jharkhand and has no “Godfathers” in the BCCI, his achievements are truly mind-boggling.
So what makes him tick?
Here is my take:
He is self-aware. His growth from a dasher to someone who nurdles his way to a fifty before the opposition has realized that the game has slipped out of their hands is an example of this quality. Dashers garner all the glory, especially in India. But most hard-hitting batsmen get figured out rapidly in international cricket and have a tendency to flame out as spectacularly as they rose. It takes cricketing intelligence, an awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses, and loads of hard work to make such a transition.
He is not insecure. Fairly early in his career, he chose to sit out an ODI series being played in Sri Lanka. With the background of the war of words that BCCI engages in every time someone points to the insane schedules they subject the players to, a Captain choosing to sit out was an extraordinary act of courage. He came back refreshed and has not looked back ever since. This self-confidence allows him to deal with situations with equanimity and treat his players fairly keeping petty politics at bay.
He is a hard worker. His technique, both as a wicket keeper and as a batsman is suspect. As a wicket-keeper, he has grown to a point where his stumpings are the best exhibition of wicket-keeping that I have seen – I can only imagine the hard work that must have gone into making those blink-and-you-miss-it removal of the bails. On the batting front, he makes up with grit what he lacks in technique and is the quickest runner between the wickets. It is a testament to his stamina and countless hours of physical training, that after wicket-keeping for hours on end, he is the fastest runner in the batting line-up. He leads from the front and confronts his weaknesses head-on – gives him the moral heft to challenge his players to do better.
He is an informed risk taker. He has a great read of the game and he is willing to take a gamble, no more so than asking the unfancied Joginder Singh to bowl the last over of the T20 finals, that too against archrivals Pakistan! Can you imagine what would have happened if India had lost to Pakistan? His ability to make such decisions in the midst of career defining moments sets him apart.
Lastly, he has his ego under check. He is a genuine star – I would hazard a guess that he must be the only cricketer in the world to have a Head of State comment on his hairstyle! He is incredibly wealthy and arguably his fame is on par with those of Shah Rukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkars. Yet he is remarkably grounded, neither patronizing nor talking down to people, when he interacts with the media. I think that his perspective, that at the end of the day cricket is just a game, a fickle one at that, allows him to deal with victories and disappointment with fair degree of dispassion.
On the cricket field he seems to live up to the exhortation from the Bhagwad Gita, “To action alone hast thou a right and never at all to its fruits; let not the fruits of action be thy motive; neither let there be in thee any attachment to inaction”.
Like countless others, I have analyzed the India-South Africa game and I am convinced that there were several strategic errors made by Dhoni. But when I read columns by well meaning, passionate Indian cricket fans talking gibberish about Dhoni’s “favoritism” or him being a “lucky captain whose day of comeuppance is upon him”, I find it very distasteful and more a reflection of the poor mindset of the fans than a reflection on Dhoni. If any of you are interested, Dhoni’s answers to tough questions posed by a panel of sportswriters in the post-match session, are an excellent watch.
Let us, the fans, take our cue from captain Dhoni and perform our duties in the spirit of “Nishkam Karma Yoga”, the Yoga of Selfless Action and support our team, win-or-lose.
Life is Good!!!
(Murali is a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. When he gets time off from his cricketing duties, whether it be playing or watching cricket, he attends to his duties as a husband, father, and engineering new solar technology solutions)
