Truthful Tuesday | MS Dhoni doesn’t owe any of us an explanation
British historian Thomas Carlyle was not a follower of cricket nor did he would have thought in his wildest dreams that a man in the eastern Indian outpost of Ranchi, more than 100 years to his death, would validate his theory of heroes in the most convincing way possible.
“No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.” A follower of German idealism, Carlyle had seen the world in a way very few British writers of the 17th and 18th centuries had seen. It was a mixture of romanticism and hero-worship - a fragile combination Indian cricket followers have grown up adhering to.
Put them in the context of Indian cricket. Kapil Dev was born to write the history, Sachin Tendulkar to define it but MS Dhoni was the man Friday for the big occasions. If Tendulkar made Indian people dream, Dhoni fulfilled it. If Sourav Ganguly was the Dada everyone adores, Dhoni was the real gangster who meant business. Indian cricket found purpose under Dhoni and it was the man from Jharkhand who gave some of the best memories to an Indian cricket fan - go and beat that winning six to the stands of Wankhede and the beer is on me.
However, only in a Utopian world, a celebrity walks on the bouquets sans the bricks and MS Dhoni was no different. His career is a graph of immense success and deep-rooted flaws but never ever had that a bearing on the man or the way he lived. It played a part in him taking a sabbatical from Indian cricket and all the questions that are being directed at him - a lot of them actually. Opinion makers and former cricketers keep on harping on why it is unfair to keep his personal interest ahead of the national interest, why Dhoni should have given a clarity of his future, and why no one is above the game et al. There was no end to it and it doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.
While it is in a way for the fans to keep their own sentiments atop, it is somehow unfair to the sportsman himself, who in reality, doesn’t owe anyone anything. He can absolutely walk away from the sport without telling anyone or heck, he can actually announce a Dinesh Mongia-kind of retirement, 10 years after playing his last game for India. It is fine because he has played his cricket like that and never ever let the pressure of anything else dictate the course of his action. Sentimentalism has never been the domain of the former Indian skipper and expect that to continue even though cookie crumbles around him.
When Dhoni retired from Test cricket in late 2014 and gave up limited-overs captaincy ahead of the 2017 England series, he did it because he had a successor ready, not because he was underfiring as a captain. He continued playing until the 2019 World Cup because he and the team management thought he was the best fit for the role of wicket-keeping and handholding the spinners from behind the wicket. If Dhoni thinks he doesn’t have anything to give it to Indian cricket but is ready for the worst situation where the team might need him, can he not keep the same to himself and not announce retirement at all? With an IPL coming up, can Dhoni just not push himself for his franchise to boost their title chances?
Sure enough, fans are an important stake-holder of the game and are a major reason behind cricket reaching the position in the country it has now. It is also fair enough for the fans to demand a similar reciprocation from the stars they adore day in and day out but what about the cricketers’ personal ambition or the fear of not doing the same thing that they had once protested against? What about the treatment that was dished out to a giant of Indian cricket - VVS Laxman - who for all his might in Test never really got a farewell game.
That MS Dhoni openly admitted why he had to make the tough decisions for the betterment of the team wasn’t news anymore for the Indian cricket followers. By getting rid of Rahul Dravid, Laxman and Sourav Ganguly in 2007-08, Dhoni not only ensured he had no tired legs on the ground but also prepared a team for the 2011 World Cup that eventually went on to win. And now, if Dhoni comes back to play a showpiece farewell game or if at all makes a fuss about his retirement, it will be in direct conflict with his own decision all those years ago. It is a very Dhoni-like thing to do and that’s absolutely fine.
That the management and the BCCI claim that they already have a discussion with Dhoni already ends the matter once and for all, and anyone else other than them doesn’t need to have any clarity, for that is how it should be - a personal choice. If he gets a game on the basis of his performance in the IPL, that is well and good, we all can be happy, celebrating a cricketer and wicket-keeper who redefined limited-overs cricket in his own way. If he doesn’t and walks away to sunset, we can still be proud of everything that he gave to Indian cricket, one of self-belief and some massive success. That is Dhoni’s legacy, and let’s celebrate that no matter which side of the schism you really stand on.
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