Many Stupid Decisions

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Warning: Friends, I’m back after a hiatus; I’ll write regularly from now on!

M S Dhoni M S D - three letters that evoked, till yesterday, feeling s of pride, happiness, joy, awe & inspiration - despite terror, famine, drought, floods, elections & politicians! Today, however, everyone wants to delete MSD from All memory. In as much as the adulation was irrational, excessive, the scorn, the rubbishing, the venom everyone is spewing out is even more irrational and disgusting. Pray, what is all the hullabaloo about? It is just a cricket match, in which the winner was not our choice! The media is baying for MSD’s blood; the public, if they get a chance, will literally draw blood. Hey! Wait a minute; but then this is India and all the spicy foods that we so love to eat and gorge on, make us emotional, angry, jubilant, despondent – all extreme.

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Well, truth is MSD has been in charge of the fate or fortunes of the Indian cricket team, whether they were at a high , till recently, or in an abyss, now, except that while at the peak it was Mostly Sensible Decisions, it is now Many Stupid Decisions.

Folks, you agree, it is time now to look at the MSD? So let’s look at the many stupid decisions.

Non- stop cricket – from one end of the world to the other: New Zealand, followed by IPL @ SA, followed by T20 World Cup @ England, as captain, wicket keeper, batsman, media interaction plus the BIGGEST role of them all, shooting endlessly for a million commercials! How can any individual be sane, leave alone fresh after so much abuse? Whether it is greed or over confidence, there is no doubt that it was stupid. Why didn’t MSD have the sense to let go some responsibilities? Why didn’t he have the sense to not over work, both on and off the field? Stupid decision.

Also Read : Wanted A New Skipper/Brand Ambassador

Sehwag fiasco: Will we ever get to know the truth about Sehwag’s fitness? If he was not fully fit, why did MSD not put his foot down and say he should not be part of the team? If he was fit, then why did he not play? Any which way, stupid decision. Add to this the tamasha of parading the entire team to ‘show’ everyone that the team is united – another stupid decision. (the Tamil saying that comes to mind is எங்க அப்பன் குதிற்கு உள்ள இல்லை enga appan kudhirku ulla illai).

Tactical blunders, thoughtless experiments – handling of the bowlers, changing bowlers without any logic, shuffling the batting order, all manners of things so much so one started wondering if one was watching a game of cricket or Russian roulette, not knowing who will be bhakra when. Choice (of batting/bowling) after winning the toss. Most times stupid decisions.

Last but not the least, the way MSD handled the media: he thought he was being clever, but his body language, tone, language, shifting eyes was a dead giveaway that he was being evasive. Stupid to have thought he was clever.

In our eyes, a hero, the man with the midas touch, has become a villain, from an alchemist who turned everything to gold to one whose touch turns everything to ashes.

I would say we are going overboard. It is too much to blame only MSD for the poor performance. We should hope this is a wakeup call for these pampered millionaires and hope they understand that ‘perform or perish’ is not just a corporate mantra. In international sport there is no place to hide - Perish you will, if you don’t perform.

Take the poll: Dhoni is fully responsible for India's exit. Agree?

L.Ravichandran
ravi@chennaionline.com

June 16^th, 2009

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Comments

mouli

This article has been in this column for over a month without any change!

19 Jul 2009 06:05 PM

p.narayan iyer

it is indeed strange that the indian media should be so result oriented in its "generous" offer of comments. Firstly, cricket is a game and winning and losing is a part of the sport. all sporting activities are encouraged because they are supposed to make a man face triumph and defeat with equanimity. so dont talk so degradingly of the heroes whom this country held in highest esteem just a couple of years ago. The country would have shown great righteousness if the gallant soldiers of the kargil war or the commandoes who saved us from the terrorist were given as grand an ovation as the crickets who won the T20 world cup. but as a nation our priorities are so convoluted, that we are going to have such comments only coming up from the media. Doesnt this remind you of the dastardly attack on ajit wadekar's house because india's performance in the field was not to the liking of the press. And let us get one thing straight: chaps like MSD have more knowledge of the game than all the writers put together. just because in hindsight you have ability to find fault does not make you a great critic. if there is suspicion of malafides in these decisions then it is incumbent on the part of the press to highlight them.

16 Jul 2009 10:42 AM

This is lousy article. Even though the author has tried to do some bashing on Dhoni or MSD ( I am not sure if the author used the pun here MSD - Microsoft Developer Network :)) and did the bashing on MSD I am not sure. If that be it he has done his best to bash them. But the article was in poor taste and dont thing any taught was put into it before penning the same. Such articles should be avoided. This is just a stupid article making a fool of the author and not MDS.

06 Jul 2009 11:56 AM

Chandramouli

Thank you, Editor. I look forward to this interesting column.

03 Jul 2009 07:25 PM

Editor

This will resume in the next few days as a daily column

03 Jul 2009 03:27 PM

Chandramouli

What is the frequency for this column By The By? There has been no new article recently!

03 Jul 2009 02:32 PM

As usual, media thinks if sehwag was playing india would have won. If still they lose they could included tendulkar was not playing so we lost...

01 Jul 2009 10:36 PM

s thiagarajan

Let us stop praising/pricing/prizing our cricketers too/ten much when they win and ditch them, when they lose. I don't think the Aussie team was criticized so badly as ours when they (the Aussies) made an earlier exit than ours from the current T20 championship. Like any other wage-earner, let us pay our cricketers their salaries to play for the nation and prize monies (when they win) and stop with that. Let us not shower undue praise and lump sum gifts/payments (when they win) & make them demi-gods and later dump them (when they lose). Let us realise that a winner this year will be a loser next year and the vice versa.

19 Jun 2009 09:34 AM

Not a good article.Poor knowledge about international cricket and pressure. It is like a movie review. As expected , ppl started saying if sewhag was there india would have won. We count only non available players. Most Stupid Review.

18 Jun 2009 07:52 PM

VS DURGAM

As long as you are winning, no questions. If you start losing, you are the culprit. Decisions by Dhoni were hailed as intelligent and innovative, when he was winning. The same decisions became foolish, when he lost. Motto of media seems to be in line with Adolf Hitler, who once said if you win you need not explain, if you lose, you should not be there to explain.

18 Jun 2009 04:29 PM

Kalki

Yet another Dhoni bashing article. In my opinion, he handled the media as they should have been handled....with scorn. Let the man be....he is doing a great job. A loss at the T20 world cup is not the end of the world. Boris Becker once famously told after his shock second round exit from Wimbledon - "I lost a tennis match, nobody died." Lets keep this in perspective - it is AFTER ALL a game of cricket.

18 Jun 2009 09:55 AM

Prasanna K

Our Indian media thinks they know everything and starts analyzing. How many ppl in media was even part of the 14 member squad for atleast one ranji match ? Things are cooked up by media so that they can run the news channels/magazines running 24*7 and add value to advertisers. Everyone know there could be only one team winning the world cup. Aussie are way above our Indian media in supporting their sports team rather bringing them down.

17 Jun 2009 09:50 PM

hari

Our weakness to playing short pitched balls was beautifully exploited by both West Indies and England. That is the reason for the loss.

17 Jun 2009 12:39 AM