Cricket is a team game. If there is any doubt, just ask a certain B C Lara or S R Tendulkar whose best not always resulted in their team’s win and the individual will always tell that his own success is not quite fulfilling when the team doesn’t win. Having said this, a common cricket follower (especially in Asia) always looks up to his own favourite individual’s contribution. Though we will realize that a certain individual is not the sole reason why we watch the sport for so many years, it is undoubtedly certain personalities who infuse the interest initially. This sport has so many instances where the result of the confrontation between two individuals has determined the result of the match also. India has a long and strong history of hero worship and we are always in the look out of a great leader or a superstar in any field and we sometimes go out of bounds to glorify them.
In this generation of globalization, the corporate world is drilling in the idea of team work in the workplace. What is it I am trying to convey here? Is it importance of Team Work in a game like cricket or the influence of crowd pullers who capture the imagination of the whole lot? Well, I am going back to the idea of hero worship and put my views on a small town boy whom the media introduced to India with a kind of rock star image but who has been able to handle the superstardom quite admirably and showing the world that there is of course a way not to get overawed by the adulation and keep performing. I am talking about the man currently in-charge of the Indian cricket team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD).
After a prodigy called Sachin Tendulkar burst into international cricket, no player (even the charismatic Saurav Ganguly) has been able to make the transition look so simple, straight forward and smooth. In this generation one could easily relate to a small town boy making it big in his field but doing so in cricket and that too with the kind of media following the game has, it is not always as easy as it is perceived to be. First of all, in India, cricket is the only professional sport where money and infrastructure is available in abundance and so cricketers have the luxury of not having to worry about recognition and other factors which every other sport faces. But what we tend to forget is that sport in general has a very short life time and you need to be at your peak all the time in order to sustain your career. One can very easily lose count on the one-match, one-series, one-year wonders that we see in international cricket.
In cricket, being a player and being a captain are completely different ball games.
That too in countries like India and Pakistan, it is always hard to separate out the two roles and be on the button all the time. This is where MSD has managed to do the balancing act quite remarkably, which great players like Sachin, Dravid or an exceptional captain like Saurav have failed. Statistically speaking, India has won close to 70% of ODIs he has captained and in the same matches his average is close to a staggering 60 (59.7). Though he doesn’t possess an enviable test record as a batsman, he still is India’s best wicket keeper and he seems to know the knack of when exactly to influence the match with his bat (Drawing the Lord’s test in 2007 and playing some crucial knocks against the Aussies in the home series).
The Playing XI
The way he chooses the playing XI gives you an insight on how calculative he is. The VB series that India won in Australia in early 2008 is a clear example of it. To make players of the stature of Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly sit out (just to remind that Yuvraj was looking like a school kid wrongly pitted against big men during the test series and Gambhir was yet to establish himself as an opener) and show the world that the team can win needs lots of conviction and guts. Throughout the VB series, he picked Munaf Patel for games against Srilanka alone (since with his pace and agility on field, he would have surely been a liability against the more agile Aussies). His backing of the under fire Yuvraj and the way he utilized Praveen Kumar in the later stages of the tournament (and boy didn’t he deliver in the finals!!) needs a special mention here.
Replacing the Veterans
By replacing Dravid and Saurav, he first ensured that you have two players, with better agility (much needed in the big Australian grounds), but doubts were there about the primary job of batting where the two veterans were still among the best. One of the problems was solved for MSD by the run-hungry Gambhir but the way he more than covered up for Dravid was outstanding. Covering up for Dravid’s solidity and run accumulation in ODIs takes some doing and MSD made sure that the team not for once missed Dravid. Taking this decision might not have look like a big risk but the scrutiny he would have been under if the plan had not been executed well is an unpleasant one.
I remember after MSD guided India home in an ODI against Srilanka in the last over, Uthappa mentioning to the television channel that Dhoni is the new Dravid of the team. Right from that time, his statistics just about proves that.
Thought Clarity
The way MSD has been able to move into Dravid’s shoes after asking for a team which will allow him to do that (the stroke makers Sehwag, Gambhir, Raina & Yuvraj) speaks a lot about the clarity he had in his mind. There were umpteen numbers of media reports and expert analysis on how he has shed his natural game, but for me what he decided upon was a very simple decision brought about by nothing other than an uncluttered mind. MSD seems to possess not only the habit of learning from his playing experience but an astute observing capability and more importantly turning his observations into very simple and practically executable actions.
The Indian Flavour
What sets MSD apart is not his adaptability or talent (which many other youngsters possess) but the clarity with which he makes decisions and the manner in which he ensures that he and his team execute most of them. The most impressive part of it (especially in India) is that, he is doing these without creating the slightest feeling of revolting against the system here, rather we do not get the feeling that he is revolting because he doesn’t really revolt!!. We all knew how difficult it was for Saurav to build a team of his choice and ironically, he became a victim of his own vision. Here is where MSD scores. He keeps things simple and does it in a way which is natural for Indians. Greg Chappell failed in this as he tried to thrust upon Aussie professionalism into Indians (though with the noblest of intentions) with only the then captain (Dravid) vouching for it.
Playing to the strengths
One more striking aspect of MSD as a player is: playing to his strengths. His thought clarity helps him in this aspect too. He clearly knows his comfort zone and being the captain gives him the liberty to bat where he wants. One is now used to seeing MSD coming out to bat at No.3, but not when a Latish Malinga is bowling his deadly toe crushers with great accuracy. This can even be looked at negatively but I see it in a positive way. He comes in to bat when he feels he will be most effective. The second test against Australia in Mohali last year was a clear example of this. He knew that the pitch was placid and he could take the attack to the opposition. But the striking feature in doing this is that he manages to make all these innings count, in its own way it tilts the balance towards the team. So far, he has done it with good consistency and that reflects in his average.
The 27 year old M.S.Dhoni is the first captain who belongs to the current generation and among the current bunch of cricketers, seems to be the best candidate to lead the team for quite some time. The T20 world cup has been his only failure till now. It will be interesting to see how he handles failures. The shelf life that all captains have is yet to set in, a first sign of how this generation handles pressure and MSD has done well so far. The way he handles the media has also been quite good. It will be interesting to see what is in store for the ‘Captain cool’!!!
-Vijay
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