Not only are the ghosts of 2011 back, they have just become scarier than ever. India’s England tour is on the brink of ending in tears, as the Indian team crashed to one of its worst defeats in over 6 decades of playing Test cricket as an independent nation. But what was shocking was how unaffected captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni seemed to be at the end of the match. It’s hard for one to truly express the intensity of the public anger in India at this inglorious defeat, but an attempt must be made.
It’s great to be cool and collected, but if one doesn’t show emotions even after such a disastrous defeat, when everything is lost, then it only goes to show that one doesn’t care enough. For “captain cool” MS Dhoni, there were many positives in the defeat. He said that he was “happy with the way the team was progressing,” but in the same breath that they needed improvement in a few areas. He added that “There is no difference in losing in three days or losing in five days. A loss is a loss”.
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If that’s what Mr.Dhoni thinks, he is completely out of touch with reality, and completely oblivious to the public opinion. This wasn’t just another defeat. It was a catastrophe made worse by the way the Indian team didn’t even put up a semblance of a fight. In fact, they seemed to be in a rush to finish the match before Hurricane Bertha – which had already been lashing Wales, which is only a short distance away – hit Manchester. England were perfectly capable of winning, and didn’t really need a helping hand, but the Indian team seemed insistent on helping them out. It was as though there was a strong determination on part of Dhoni’s men not to allow the weather mar the result of the match, and hence they were keen on taking it out of the equation. That could be the only explanation for the mad rush from the Indian batsmen to throw their wickets away to even a part time off spinner, Moeen Ali, who was made to look like Shane Warne with a beard.
Here’s the question. Does Dhoni care? Not only is Dhoni the richest cricketer alive, he is said to be the sixth richest sportsman in the world. Has all the millions acquired through advertisements and IPL made Dhoni numb to the feelings of the ordinary cricket fan in India? Does he have any idea how this horrible defeat is being seen in the country of over 1 billion passionate cricket fanatics? It wouldn’t be fallacious to suggest that Dhoni and the entire Indian cricket establishment are just like the Congress party which ruled India for ten years were, before they were thrown out of power by the angry public only a few months ago. Drunk on power, living in a bubble, totally complacent and uncaring about the public opinion.
The Indian cricket board is the richest in the world. It is estimated that 90% of the wealth that flows into cricket comes from India. And this is not because of any great business acumen shown by the cricket board, but because of the love and the passion of the average Indian cricket fan. Indian cricket fans stand in queues for hours for their tickets to a cricket match featuring their beloved team, some even staying overnight outside the ticket counter. They face horrible conditions in the cricket stadiums across the country, such as a domineering police, broken toilets, badly constructed cricket stands putting their safety at risk – yet their passion for their team and love for the game has never slackened. But this defeat has left them shaken.
There have been so many horrible defeats in the past; the one in England in 2011 was perhaps the worst of the lot. But even that defeats pale in comparison to what happened yesterday at Old Trafford. The 2011 defeat was against a powerful and a highly experienced English team which had match winners such as Kevin Pietersen and Graeme Swann, led by the inspirational Andrew Strauss, a team that was at its peak and one that was used to winning. This England team was in shambles, not having won in their last 10 Tests, suffering a humiliating and shattering defeat in the Ashes, half of their senior players gone, and with a captain woefully out of form and confidence. Losing to such a team takes some doing. But Dhoni’s men have done just that. And to Mr.Dhoni, it’s just another defeat.
