Is it just me or are there others who think
that Dhoni is a terrible captain?
I am a big India and Chennai Super Kings fan. Both teams have done very well under MSD over
the last few years. So I shouldn’t
complain – right? Wrong. I believe that we win in spite of Dhoni on
many occasions and not because of him – certainly not his captaincy. Dhoni as a keeper-batsman is awesome and
worth his weight in gold. That is not
the point. But the mistakes that he
makes in captaincy again and again is mind-boggling. Remember how he kept saying that Ashwin was
a great spinner and kept dropping him during the World Cup? Remember his crazy faith on players like
Piyush Chawla, Rohit Sharma, etc. when all of us were tearing our hair
out. And add to that instances like what
we saw in the last game – dropping Zaheer after saying he was the ‘Sachin’ of
Indian bowling, etc. And it is clear
from the press reports today that Sehwag was not ‘requested’ to sit out like it
was made out to be.
So here is my conspiracy theory on why
Dhoni acts the way he does.
I think Dhoni is keeping players under
‘check’ consciously. In India today –
nobody is assured of their place in the playing 11. Not Ashwin, not Zaheer, not Gambhir, not even
Sachin. With the senior pros like Rahul
and Lakshman out, there is really no one who is an automatic selection anymore
– in any form of the game. Everybody is
dispensable – except Dhoni, of course.
In spite of playing the most number of days of international cricket for
a couple of years now, Dhoni refuses to rest and promote any another wicket
keeper. Guys like Parthiv Patel and
Wriddiman Saha and Dinesh Karthik – all of them perfectly good keeper-batsmen –
rarely get selected to play for India and even if they do, never figure in the
playing 11. I think this Dhoni’s method
of ensuring his own continuity and ensuring that he leads India for as long as
he wants?
Any true leader is also judged on how
secure he makes his team feel. A true
leader is one who identifies and promotes other leaders in the team. On that front, MSD is doing a terrible
job. Just saying…
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