Getting high on MSD

Whether the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was actually looking at the future when it named Mahender Singh Dhoni as captain for the 12 ODIs against Australia and Pakistan is something we will get to know soon. But what cricket fans at home and abroad must know very well is the fact that this decision had to be made as there was no suitable candidate after Sachin Tendulkar said ‘no’.
It is often said that leading the Indian side is not easy, given the pulls and pressures that come from various directions. Most importantly, the captain hardly gets to know if the BCCI will back him to the hilt in difficult situations. Yet, despite these strains, Rahul Dravid marshalled the resources well and also handled two high profile ex-captains – Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly – without any major glitches.
When Dhoni steps out for the toss against the shrewd, calculating and aggressive Ricky Ponting in the first ODI at Bangalore on September 29, he knows some kind of history is going to being made. Flip through the annals of cricket and you’ll find that rarely does a player go on to lead the country within three years of making a debut.
Dhoni played his first ODI against Bangladesh in 2004 and has been a regular in the squad since then, although his keeping came under the scanner on the recent tour to England just before the first Test. There was talk that the keeper had fumbled with the unusual ‘swing’ of deliveries this time in England and Dinesh Karthik could actually be given a look-in.
How times change. Just as we have cricket being played at a fast and furious pace (Twenty20), where bowlers probably need to pop in an Alprax before steaming in to bowl to the marauders, we have keeper-batsman Dhoni now ascending the throne. All right, Dhoni is just the captain for 12 ODIs and not the entire season and that the skipper for the Tests remains to be decided. Still, to have a Young Turk shoulder such a huge responsibility is something that the BCCI think-tank has never done before.
Forget what it will be like to draw strategies to match the Oz firepower in the ODIs, the first bits of homework Dhoni will need to work on is how to handle three former captains under him – Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly, each of whom is keen to play the ODIs, unless, of course, injuries or lack of form are going to keep them out.
When the triumvirate opted out of the Twenty20 World Cup, we knew it was the best decision, given the fitness levels and ages of these three. Ponting was almost a uncertainty for the India tour, thanks to his own fitness, before deciding he is going to come. So, apart from donning the gloves and watching every bit of action from behind the stumps, for Dhoni, the biggest test is man management, which will make or mar his future.
I am not trying to sound like Nostradamus, but Indian cricket is unkind. I am reminded of the oft-used cliché: Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan. For Dhoni to succeed as the Gen Next captain, he needs his batsmen to click, bowlers to be bang on target and the part-timers chipping in with the bat and ball.
Had this been an away-series Down Under, the BCCI perhaps would not have taken this gamble. But these are modern times, where we take the risk of hiring a coach as big as Greg Chappell, who eventually did more harm than good to a sport that is like a religion at home. I firmly believe when they are investing in a captain like Dhoni, the BCCI should put the hunt for a foreign coach on the backburner for the time being. In Chandu Borde, India had a good manager on the England tour, with coaches Venky Prasad and Robin Singh both working hard. The fielding came in for flak, but why blame Robin for it?
The cricket world has seen Dhoni as someone who is daring, flamboyant and ready to play such audacious stuff that it has purists tearing their hair! Captaincy is a burden, as has been described by Dravid and Tendulkar, where anyone and everyone from the panwallah to an MNC bigwig sits on judgment.
Dhoni knows he has to seize this opportunity with both hands, even if it means taking some hard decisions. He’ll have to decide the composition of the team on the basis of form, find the right balance and use the men at right fielding slots correctly. It’s a well-known fact that in ODIs, you cannot hide the bad fielders, and at most, you can put them in the slip-catching region.
But the best thing going for Dhoni now is that his vice-captain (actually his senior) Yuvraj Singh is in the most brutal form now. It is with this big plus and the advantage of flat tracks across the length and breadth of the country, we will see Dhoni lead a side that is a wonderful combination of youth and experience.
The decision which ‘Colonel’ Dilip Vengsarkar and his team have taken has come out of the blue for the traditional school of thought. But these are interesting times for Indian cricket, where the bosses are ready to spend big on domestic cricket, to think of their own Twenty20 and now a young captain whose rock-star looks make him immensely popular.
In a way, for the BCCI, which has handled crises before, the latest after Dravid’s resignation was a tough call. And unlike other captains who came with solid ‘backing’ – how can we forget that Ganguly had Jagmohan Dalmiya supporting him all the time? – Dhoni’s at a disadvantage.
Hailing from Jharkand, where you probably expect hockey players to come from, Dhoni has been a big revelation. For a man who has batted with scant respect for the bowlers and the copybook, captaincy should come naturally after the Twenty20 stint.
Despite the scare which the Oz bring with them, I still think Dhoni’s captaincy will be very innovative. And let us not judge him based on just these 12 ODIs. We need to plan for the 2011 World Cup, by which time Tendulkar and Ganguly should be in the commentary booth.
If we have taken such a big gamble, groom Dhoni for the future. Short-term losses are something that must be overlooked. The big target in sight is the next World Cup to be held in the sub-continent with the final in Mumbai. It’s time Indian cricket gets its high from MSD.