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Wednesday, June 10, 2009 17:37 IST

Dhoni can be faulted for a number of things - such as his strange tactics these days to come one down and play the sheet anchor in T20 - but to attack him for bristling at being saddled with an injured Sehwag from the very outset of India's campaign to defend the World Cup shows how thoughtless the cricket media can be. In the rush to do the 'big story', the wrong story is pursued.

The real story is why Sehwag let his team down by going along on such an important tour despite being unfit to bat - and we're talking T20 where you have to keep slogging. Did he not disclose his injury or did the BCCI allow him to go anyway? What was the physiotherapist doing? And when Sehwag could not play in the practice matches before the tournament due to injury, why did the team manager not give that information out to the media to scotch any speculation over why Rohit Sharma was taking Sehwag's place?

These were the questions that should have immediately been raised. Instead, a speculative story was put out about this big fight between Dhoni and Sehwag which had resulted in Rohit Sharma usurping Sehwag's place. So here was Dhoni being forced not just to cope with a last minute change in the top order, but also to come out with a dramatic demonstration of team unity. And to criticise Dhoni for not being open with the media betrays a strange naivete from sports journalists who are well aware of the bureaucratic and autocratic ways of the Indian cricket board.

Dhoni's task is difficult enough. He has a lot of good teams to contend with. T20 has been around for a while and the gap is very narrow between the top teams. On top of that, he has to live with an inefficient team manager and board. But instead of being sensitive to this, and strengthening his hand by exposing the dubious ways in which injured players get on the bandwagon, the media attacks the captain.

That Dhoni has managed to achieve so much in so short a time is in fact doubly creditable, given these extraneous games that he has to play. Apart from dealing with players who hide their injuries - something that afflicts India more than other teams because of the huge monetary stakes involved - there is the perennial negotiation with selectors which brings another level of complexity. Before the Sehwag affair, there was the reported falling out between Dhoni and chief selector Krish Srikkanth over the team for the World Cup. Dhoni was denied the services of Dinesh Kaarthick, and ironically enough it is Kaarthick who is replacing Sehwag.

In all these political games, one can lose focus on the things that really matter - the team composition, the tactics and the team spirit. So if Dhoni has been losing his cool at being grilled by the media, he has every reason for it. It's the BCCI and Sehwag (and Maybe Zaheer Khan) who should be grilled, not him. In fact, that's the broad hint he gave the media. But nobody got it, or chose not to. The juicier - and easier - line to take is Dhoni-baiting.

So how will this affect India's chances? Undoubtedly, there's a lot more unnecessary pressure and distraction that Dhoni and his men have to handle as compared to the other teams. But you never know - it might also help to bind the team and make them come out fighting against both the persecution and their opponents. Something like that happened in Australia when Dhoni refused to accommodate the seniors from the Test team in his one-day side. It was as though the young team had a point to prove, which it did by winning the triseries. Let's hope the media again unwittingly helps fire up Dhoni.

8 comments

I agree with Mr Hari Mohan Singh, who has made an apt comment. I greatly appreciate the author's analyses. I am a regular reader only for your way of analysing the facts.

There are far too many journalists covering cricket. What is the need for a press conference even after a practice session? The media thinks far too much of itself and always tries to occupy the high ground. Please get off our cricketers' backs and let them play. We can very well live without these dumb journalists, but we very much need our cricketers.

Great blog and needs wider coverage. Please someone take prints of this and distribute to all those so-called journos sitting in London. It seems these journos, who were on a paid trip by their media houses, wanted to create news rather than report it!

You hit the nail right on the head. The reporting by The Times Of India seems to carry the agenda of assaulting captains of the Indian cricket team, specially successful ones. First it did that to Ganguly and now to Dhoni. Comments by some us on what is going on inside or considerations are uncalled for.

Bull's eye!

Ram, Sam & Dexter, an additional question to raise is whether Indian players hide their injuries because the board is not supportive. For example, if Sehwag had been open about his injury but felt he might still be able to play halfway through the tournament, would the board have been pragmatic and carried him along outside the contingent?

Dear Sumit, thanks for an unbiased take on Dhoni's predicament. Yours is the first article I read recently that puts the blame where it's clearly due. You redeemed my almost vanishing faith in the Indian media.

This is absolutely not fair. If Dhoni wanted another 'keeper he would have got Dinesh. But he is always against/not comfortable having Dinesh in his team, because he might take up his place if Dhoni is not performing? I think the author is not looking at some facts. Dinesh and Chika are from TN. Why will he deny Dinesh a place? Please look into a few facts before writing such blogs henceforth.

Good article. I believe Sehwag hid the seriousness of his injury and earned Dhoni's anger. Had Karthik been with the team during warmups, he would have been better prepared.