The topic of Mahendra Singh Dhoni

‘There’s a lot of mediocrity being celebrated, and a lot of wonderful stuff being ignored or discouraged’

-Sean Penn

In the past decade if there was one personality who went on to make a lot of fans and haters at the same, it was a guy from Jarkhand named M.S.Dhoni. I however, find it a little confusing. Why do most Indians hate a charismatic guy, who can boldly represent India across the globe, a guy who had proven his mettle time and again, a guy who has been rated among the best captains to ever walk the earth… and most of all, a guy who won every Indian’s dream – A world cup in the 2000s????

I have thought over and over every point about this man. Introduced as a hard-hitting, aggressive keeper over Dinesh Karthick, he went on to captain the Indian side. He has earned the respect of all former captains, rival players and present team mates. All but a lot of cricket fans in India.

So why do so many Indians hate Dhoni?

Cause he has no style?

Cause he is just too good to be true? too successful to believe?

Cause he can’t bat like Dravid?

Cause he is from Bihar? or because he plays for Chennai? 😉

Cause he has more endorsements than the great SRK?

Cause he captains the most formidable T20 teams??

or just for no reason? Oh no.. all haters have their own reasons. Its just that I find all the reasons so dumb. One good reason and maybe even I’ll hate him.

Lets leave out Dada fans. Dada fans can’t get themselves to like anyone except him. Not even Sachin.

Sachin fans….. hmmm probably because Dhoni is taking credit when Sachin had to be the one captaining the side towards the victories… well sorry guys!!

Dravid fans… well I dunno they are a sensible lot…. maybe because a true hero like him got left out in the strike-rate battle?? but yes the man really did deserve to be in the world cup winning team.

Ok.. maybe he is just too lucky. ‘Luck’ is something terribly associated with ‘undeserved victories’ these days. Somehow, luck seldom favored Ganguly, he was truly responsible for every victory under him. Among India’s long-serving captains, Azhar is probably the guy I would hate. A person openly involved in match-fixing, surprisingly has few haters. Till date he enjoys adulation for the games he played well, when there were so many matches he just threw away.

I’ll tell you what is true. It is not an easy task keeping wickets and captaining a team. It is not easy to run hard like a sprinter throughout the innings to add valuable runs after keeping wickets for 50 overs straight. And here we have a guy who has been doing an amazing job, with the big gloves on, having to deal with a ‘star’-studded batting line up and a below-par bowling attack. Not to mention handling the expectations of a billion people. Many of the matches were simply owned because of some cool-headed decisions on the field and some sensible middle-order batting.

He captains India in an era that will never be forgotten. Ever. But Indians can never be satisfied. True story.

For all the haters… I am not a fan of Dhoni. I do think his technique is poor and that he plays ugly shots. But I don’t see that as a reason to take credit off his achievements…. or to hate him. Would you rather place a guy plays cricket by the book and lets slip the world cup? Give me a good reason, I ll definitely join you guys when you all sit around and criticize his mistakes match after match.