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MSD's captaincy

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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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