Five days after retiring
from Test cricket without
uttering a word, Mahendra
Singh Dhoni was back with
the Indian Test team, which
was preparing for the
fourth Test match, in the
team’s first official nets of
the year here today.
Over the last five days,
there has been much debate
about Dhoni’s reasons for
retiring, and his whereabouts.
He was missing
from the Australian prime
minister’s tea party on January
1. After Ravi Shastri,
the team director, said that
Dhoni would remain in Australia
but won’t be with the
team, there was speculation
that he would be in Australia
as a tourist. But there were
no reports of any Dhonisighting
from Australia.
Today, however, Dhoni
resurfaced for the first
time since the news of his
retirement came — he
turned up at the Sydney
Cricket Ground for a bit of
cricket! Dhoni was among
the first of the Indian players
to get to the nets today,
but he didn’t bat at all. He
only bowled, and did that
with great enthusiasm,
bowling seam-up and
banging it short to test the
bouncy wicket.
He’s no more part of the
Test set-up, so why did
Dhoni join the team? Perhaps
he wanted to keep
himself in shape for the
One-day tri-series, in which
India play their first match
on January 18.
Yet, there is something odd
about him attending the nets
with the Test team – he led
the team for six years and,
among this bunch of players,
was nothing less than a giant.
It just might have been wiser
for him to let this squad get
used to life without him, to
let them be themselves without
being encumbered by his
colossal presence.
Having forsaken Test
cricket without saying a
word publicly – Indian fans
assume it’s just because of
his customary indifference,
which is the source of his
‘cool’ — to join the team as
it prepared for a tough Test
match, either to stay fit or to
have a bit of fun, is odd.
There was speculation that
Dhoni might have quit Test
cricket because of some
unnamed conflict, or some
unspecified injury. His nets
session today seems to rule
that out. Perhaps a simple
statement from him, even
now, would end the speculation
over why he did what no
Indian captain has done ever
before — quit during a Test
series. In fact, only one Indian
player before him, Navjot
Singh Sidhu, had ever walked
out of a Test series abroad.
Some commentators have
termed his retirement as a
“desertion” of the team.
That seems unfair, for Dhoni
has given his team the reasons
for his retirement. But
Dhoni has failed to realise
that he’s not just a leader of
ten men on the field — being
India’s captain makes him
bigger than that. He owed
his fans, Indian cricket’s
biggest stakeholders, a word
of explanation too.
For Dhoni to not do that,
and then merrily join the
nets, is very strange. —
Agencies
from Test cricket without
uttering a word, Mahendra
Singh Dhoni was back with
the Indian Test team, which
was preparing for the
fourth Test match, in the
team’s first official nets of
the year here today.
Over the last five days,
there has been much debate
about Dhoni’s reasons for
retiring, and his whereabouts.
He was missing
from the Australian prime
minister’s tea party on January
1. After Ravi Shastri,
the team director, said that
Dhoni would remain in Australia
but won’t be with the
team, there was speculation
that he would be in Australia
as a tourist. But there were
no reports of any Dhonisighting
from Australia.
Today, however, Dhoni
resurfaced for the first
time since the news of his
retirement came — he
turned up at the Sydney
Cricket Ground for a bit of
cricket! Dhoni was among
the first of the Indian players
to get to the nets today,
but he didn’t bat at all. He
only bowled, and did that
with great enthusiasm,
bowling seam-up and
banging it short to test the
bouncy wicket.
He’s no more part of the
Test set-up, so why did
Dhoni join the team? Perhaps
he wanted to keep
himself in shape for the
One-day tri-series, in which
India play their first match
on January 18.
Yet, there is something odd
about him attending the nets
with the Test team – he led
the team for six years and,
among this bunch of players,
was nothing less than a giant.
It just might have been wiser
for him to let this squad get
used to life without him, to
let them be themselves without
being encumbered by his
colossal presence.
Having forsaken Test
cricket without saying a
word publicly – Indian fans
assume it’s just because of
his customary indifference,
which is the source of his
‘cool’ — to join the team as
it prepared for a tough Test
match, either to stay fit or to
have a bit of fun, is odd.
There was speculation that
Dhoni might have quit Test
cricket because of some
unnamed conflict, or some
unspecified injury. His nets
session today seems to rule
that out. Perhaps a simple
statement from him, even
now, would end the speculation
over why he did what no
Indian captain has done ever
before — quit during a Test
series. In fact, only one Indian
player before him, Navjot
Singh Sidhu, had ever walked
out of a Test series abroad.
Some commentators have
termed his retirement as a
“desertion” of the team.
That seems unfair, for Dhoni
has given his team the reasons
for his retirement. But
Dhoni has failed to realise
that he’s not just a leader of
ten men on the field — being
India’s captain makes him
bigger than that. He owed
his fans, Indian cricket’s
biggest stakeholders, a word
of explanation too.
For Dhoni to not do that,
and then merrily join the
nets, is very strange. —
Agencies
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