by Rajat Subhra Chatterjee

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It was a gray morning in Townsville, a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. As Saurav Ganguly alighted from the elevator on to the ground floor lobby of the Four Seasons Barrier Reef Resort, Hotel with his baggage and cricket coffin, he found Mahendra Singh Dhoni was standing on the corner looking at him. As Dhoni came  a few steps forward towards Ganguly and asked ( in fact said ) – “ so Dada, you are on your way home ? ” Ganguly nodded with a wry smile at MSD and looked away and carried his baggage towards the exit where a transport for him was waiting to take him to the airport on way back to Kolkata.  It was 21st July, 2008.  The asking of Dhoni was sheer blasphemy in the sense that he himself had finalized everything previous evening that Saurav leaves next morning. Height of double standard !

One day earlier, on Sunday, the 20th, MSD, newly appointed ODI Captain of India, had a meeting with the Indian Selectors when he openly exhibited his dissent not to carry on with the  older and slow moving seniors in the ODI squad any more. He point blank asked for sacking of Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly and also took Sachin’s name in the same breadth.

Following the Test series just ended, there was to be a ODI tri-series involving New Zealand in Australia.  Selectors accordingly, sprang a surprise by leaving out former captains Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman  from India’s ODI  squad but could not dare touch Tendulkar for reasons other than cricket. That Tendulkar would continue for another five years in Indian cricket has been a different tale to tell. The decision was reportedly based on the team management’s preference for a younger, more athletic fielding side.  Fine, if the Captain decides so.

However, when today we see Dhoni struggling in the IPL matches, seasons after seasons failing to score and exhibiting the lack of agility behind the stumps, one wonders, what has been pushing Dhoni to still continue with Chennai Team in IPL? Money? Fame? Pride? N Srinivsan connect? But what about his much professed youthfulness in limited version of the game wherefrom, 17 seasons back,  he sacked players like Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman ? Shame is a very small word for such blatant selfish and mind boggling  misdemeanor.

Much later, around 2020, Ganguly, still very bitter the way he was handled by Dhoni opened up stating the fact right. Ganguly was the highest scorer amongst Indians in  ODI during 2007-2008   in one calendar year when he was sacked by Dhoni.  The Wisden Cricketes’ Almanack ranked Ganguly, the sixth greatest ODI batsman of all time.

In the hindside, if we go deeper, we will find that Sachin, Dravid and of course Dhoni have all been lucky enormously and got much extended cricket life while Ganguly, no meaner cricketer by talent and result, was sheer unlucky to get a very raw deal from Indian Cricket administrators and affiliated people.  I am no Saurav lover, neither I am a Saurav hater. Yet lets clear this straight that lot of injustice had been done to one of India’s greatest cricket icons.

In the final Test match that Saurav played at Nagpur against Australia in 2008, Ganguly had to announce his retirement from International Cricket, yet he still played a knock of  85 runs in the first innings. Earlier in the same series, Ganguly scored his last Test century in Mohali during the 2nd Test match against Australia. He scored 102 runs in that match. Look at the form of a batsman and he was made to retire !

Dhoni was the new captain of the one day side after the Test series which was led by  Anil Kumble  in Australia during 2007-08.  Obviously, Dhoni understood the changing dynamics of the dressing room presumably better than any other Indian captain.  Grapevine has this to say that the sudden dropping of the seniors was hastened by Dhoni primarily to a large extent of  jealousy and being himself unsure of his own status in the team with the presence of the seniors … He wanted to control the team..

Dhoni  subsequently has been alleged to have eased out – post 2011 WC –  players like Shewag, Gambhir, Yuvaraj,  Harbhajan Singh.  Harbhajan, a huge beneficiary as a cricketer like Yuvaraj, Shewag, Zaheer and Nehra under Captain Ganguly, had said later that “Dhoni treated Sourav Ganguly very shabbily. ”

Consequently lets look at some disastrous results under Captain Dhoni in Indian cricket. Dhoni as captain lost 0-4 & 0-4 against England in England  and Australia in Australia during 2011-12 marking a period of significant struggles for the Indian Test team under Dhoni’s captaincy.  While Dhoni led India to some notable victories, especially in ODIs and the World Cup, his record as Test captain, particularly away from home, was marred by massive defeats.  Calls for Dhoni’s sacking grew louder by 2012 after India’s home Test series loss  1-2 to England under Alastair Cook.

‘We’ve been wiped out 0-4 & 0-4 but the captain hasn’t changed’ … Gavaskar’s cheeky Dhoni dig is well remembered. That Dhoni took some more years after those disastrous results finally to quit Test Cricket in 2014  and International cricket in 2020, would remain a much debated talking point in cricket history.

Dhoni is still playing IPL without contributing anything whatsoever for the team completely bellies the theory he once professed and placed on table for India selectors. Older and slower seniors are not required in limited version of the game. Will  Dhoni, already on huge extension, mend his ways ?

 

concluded..

 

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