Hi Mr.Dhoni,
There have been plenty of occasions for me, in the past, to
address you.This one, as India bows out of the World Cup Semi final, shall be
the most appropriate for a Dhoni hater like me to do that. A Dhoni hater, as
regarded by the ‘true’ lovers of the game, are haters of the Indian team as such.They
suppose that we are now celebrating India’s exit out of the tournament out of
so much hate for you.I don’t have the time for them as to exonerate myself from
the ignominy. Let us remain traitors, as such.
I actually wanted to address on the occasion of you,
completing 100 wins as the ODI captain. I am your hater and I cannot unfetter
myself out of my strong impressions on you to come out and congratulate, on
such a humongous achievement. Enough said.
As I can see the whole of India, rarely in its 65 year long
history, cutting across divisions, from a Brahmin to a Dalit, from a Christian
to a Parsi, from a Kashmiri to a Kannadiga, from a CEO to a municipality scavenger,
from a RSS-man to a Naxal sympathizer, as though in pursuit of an Alexandrian
conquest, aligning behind a single individual.That is behind you. The social
media likens you to a Rajnikanth or Ajith Kumar and not a single Kamal Haasan
fan or a Vijay fan seem to be offended by it. Even during the India-Pakistan
wars of 1971 or 1999 or the Indo-China war of 1962, did the nation display
such unbreachable solidarity. Cricket, and (unfortunately) cricket alone has
been succeeding in uniting India.
Therefore, in some ways, you are the privileged individual
who symbolizes Indian unity.This is not to say that you are the first or the only
one to conjure this sort of unprecedented euphoria. But, for people who are
less than 30 years of age, like me, the Dhoni cult is something that is remarkably
peculiar.(and for haters like me, obviously abhorrent)
In 2004, on a hot afternoon, a lanky,unattractive, long
haired boy wicketkeeper was reported to be tearing the Pakistani pace battery
to smithereens. He was said to be a MS Dhoni. “Enna da peru, Dhoni, kappal
nu??” was my first reaction on hearing your name. You had ended up scoring 148
in an ODI. A few months later, during a Diwali eve, India lead by my Rahul
Dravid, was chasing a mammoth 290-something against Srilanka in a home ODI
series. I was talking with my relative that India will lose if Dravid loses his
wicket ( I don’t remember Sachin playing the series, may be he was out on an
injury) as we were losing early wickets. He replied immediately, “Dhoni irukaanla??”
I saw you walking out of the pavilion to take strike. I went out, having no
interest to watch India lose. After coming back, he beaming at me, “Dei India
won”.
“Oh , enga thala evlo adichaaru?”
“183 da”
“Oh mass ah?”
“Dei Dhoni da”
“Avan evlo adichaan?”
“Dhoni than da 183 not out”
The next day newspapers carried an image of you holding the
cricket bat with its handle to the crowd and the other end tucked within your
elbow. It was your pose after hitting the winning runs. It was like seeing a ‘Predator’
Arnold Schwarzenegger posing with his AK-47.
This is precisely why the Dhoni cult is so peculiar to us.We still cannot divorce that old unforgettable image of yours from what you
symbolize today.But there is a question, has India not witnessed a bigger cult
formation before?Is Dhoni a bigger star than Sachin Tendulkar?
Sachin Tendulkar, many may recount, was a legend even
before people of my age, had learned that an ‘over’ in cricket consisted of six
deliveries. Sachin, to us was born with the halo around him. For you,we built
it.Sachin was the cricket equivalent of the Superstar Rajnikanth. Mr Dhoni,
you don’t have a cinema equivalent yet.
Inspite of all this, I still have serious reservations
against you. I would have anyday rooted for your promotion up the batting order, to shepherd the team in difficult circumstances ,atleast when the Indian team
was trying to regroup as a unit post the retirement of its ‘Fab Four’.I would
still go to great lengths in defending my stand that you were the worst test
captain India ever produced.Is it really unfair, to expect from a captain who
has 3 ICC limited over trophies in his kitty, to reproduce atleast half of his virtuosity
in the longer format of the game, especially in overseas conditions when it is
all the more needed? People forget test debacles and try to defend you with
your fabulous exploits in the ODIs which is precisely the act of burying the fully
grown pumpkin under a small mound of rice. You were not interested in test
cricket, just like these people are and were glad to retire when you felt you
had a replacement. Isn’t test cricket, as my Dravid says, life source of
cricket? You were a Basha in ODIs and a
Lingaa in test cricket. Let me stop here, sensing my susceptibility to become
interminable whenever I am asked to accuse you.And more importantly, what I
have already said against you so far, is too much, for this occasion by any
standard.
As a fan of cricket, (not a fan of Indian cricket, because
my patriotism steadily declined to nought post the retirements of Rahul and
Sachin), I am nobody to pass a judgement on India’s show in the CWC 2015, as
absolutely clinical and uncharacteristically sublime, given the pathetic
overall form of the team in recent months.
And personally, I felt that your hand in India’s stellar
showing was all there for us to see. I genuinely admit, that there were moments
in this World Cup, where I felt, my long dead patriotism was showing signs of
resurrection before being overpowered by the Semi final disaster.
But, Mr Dhoni, none can deny your admission to the canon of
Indian greats and there will be so much hate for all the love you will manage
to win in the future as well. We will remain haters and we will have a reason
to defend.
Now, as a captain, it will be really agonising to have lost a hard-won trophy, inspite of having outdone yourselves to retain it. But as you may see, you have so far, succeeded in building a team for the future,which is no less a marvellous and an equally thankless task. We need you to lead the team in the next edition of the WC as well.Let
us hope that my next letter to you, after four years, at the end of the 2019
WC be less cold and more patriotic.
With hate,
Jeeva P.
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