Keep the faith in 'Captain' MS Dhoni

Every cricketer in his career face ups and downs. During his hay days everything seems brighter, every move by him tend to strike gold. The good times give away to a dark phase where nothing seems to go according to the plans and thus failure becomes a part and parcel of life. Critics and fans show no mercy and demand the ousting.

MS Dhoni, since he scored that hundred against Pakistan in the first ODI in 2005, he has been an enigma. In the course of time he inherited a team which was built by Sourav Ganguly and made 90 crore Indians dream fulfill by lifting the World Cup in Mumbai last year. After the World Cup, Dhoni faced a crude reality with a succession of heavy defeats in the away Test series’ and in the home series against England, he’s at risk of losing the rubber.

Nothing is going Dhoni’s way. His demand for rank turners, his strategy to play three front line spinners and so on had been backfired. His own bat has forgotten to shine in a regular basis while in the field his tactics aren’t working at all. And the recent series defeat against England on home soil has put Dhoni in the hot soup. Undoubtedly, Dhoni is facing the toughest time of his cricketing career.

The Indian fans have lost their faith from their ‘Mahi’ and are demanding his removal from the captaincy post. But those ardent fans have forgotten that in any ugly transition such sort of frustrating results are expected. After the sun set for Dravid and Laxman and with Tendulkar and Zaheer are on the verge of saying goodbye, Indian cricket has entered into an ugly transition. The void of such astonishing cricketers can’t easily be fulfilled and thus, it requires time for the captain to halt the team’s sudden slide.

New and young guns have been injected into the side and though their performance doesn’t give us an aura but they are not frustrating products by any means. When Ganguly was made the captain, Indian cricket was jolted by match-fixing saga and the loss of some prolific performers. Indian cricket was in a transition period. At the start Ganguly’s results were very frustrating. Other than Sachin Tendulkar or Anil Kumble, Ganguly had nothing to challenge the might of others. At the start, the fans’ reactions were utterly rude towards him. Gradually, Ganguly produced results – Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Zaheer, Yuvraj and co developed under his wings. These things didn’t happen suddenly but happened slowly and steadily. To tackle the transitional period Ganguly was given time and BCCI didn’t run through the emotions of chopping and changing policy.

The current Indian transition period requires an experienced captain and none could be a better choice than Dhoni. To build this team, which sliding downwards, the experience of MS Dhoni is critical. People like Dhoni are an ardent student of this game who learns from mistakes and bounce back in style to shut up the critics. It will be wiser to put faith upon Dhoni and allow him to build this Indian team.

I don’t see anyone replacing Dhoni as captain, as there aren’t any worthy candidates. Moreover, the fans and critics must think whether Dhoni is receiving enough help from his senior teammates or not. The honour of leading the country is a very attractive thing and in the subcontinent it has led to many ugly stories of rifts in the past. Is Dhoni’s captaincy a matter of envy for others and leading them to reduce the support towards him? It will be better to find out the evil spirits in the side who don’t wish to convey their full support to their captain. I did once write to sack Dhoni from the side as his cold relationship with one of his team mates was proving intoxicating but I might be wrong with Dhoni.

Indian cricket must move on by keeping the faith in Dhoni. Yes changes are needed but rather than pondering too much on the captain, ponder over the major issues which are not getting the enough importance.

Thank You

Faisal Caesar