Six years back—February, 2012 to be precise—Dhoni was younger, and maybe less sympathetic towards worn-out knees and dodgy backs. (Source: PTI)
Kya rey Dhoni, setting aa?
With age comes wisdom, and also amnesia. MS Dhoni, 36, is sounding elderly. Last week, after CSK—with seven 30-plus cricketers—won against Rajasthan Royals, Dhoni was jaunty, relaxed and candid. Press conference veterans say it’s a mental state which makes usually tight-lipped public figures vulnerable to contradicting themselves or sounding vaguely hypocritical.
Friday night, on Pune’s outskirts, this was the scene: Shane Watson, 36, was celebrating his match-winning hundred. Imran Tahir, 39, too looked pleased to have got the game-changing wicket of Ben Stokes. And there was Dhoni, at the presentation ceremony, indulging and providing crutches to the seniors hobbling towards an ice-bath. “Most of us are over 30. It’s a longish tournament, have to be fit. Experience really counts. No point getting injured when you’re trying to stop a single or a double. The kind of players we’ve got, they’ll always make that up. We’ve got a few good fielders who are very good. They are doing most of the work when it comes to the boundary fielding. Just want to keep the players fit,” he would say.
Six years back—February, 2012 to be precise—Dhoni was younger, and maybe less sympathetic towards worn-out knees and dodgy backs. He was in the middle of a tri-series in Australia, another longish tournament. It hadn’t been a year since the World Cup win yet, Dhoni had a reputation to guard. He was paranoid about his 30-plus teammates leaking singles and doubles. Tendulkar was 39, Sehwag 34 and Gambhir barely 30. Dhoni said he couldn’t play all three in the playing XI, as they were slow in the field. They took turns to sit out. “People often talk about that one run, but that one run that you save, it changes the strike, and if the next ball the batsman plays a big shot— a six or a four, it can have a big impact. In the last few games, we got two or three run-outs and that really had a big impact. Also, it’s not only these three players [Tendulkar, Sehwag and Gambhir] that we are talking about. We also have quite a few other players who are slow on the field,” he had said as an India captain.
Now, as an IPL franchise captain, it was about “don’t worry about singles, score that leaked run when you come to bat”. How the past comes knocking. A roll call of CSK’s Class of 2018: Watson (36), Ambati Rayudu (32), Raina (31), Dhoni (36), Bravo (34), Karn Sharma (30), Tahir (39), Faf du Plessis (33), Harbhajan Singh (37), Murali Vijay (33), Kedar Jadhav (32).
Now remember Dhoni’s untold story, his biopic, and the selection committee meeting scene where the ODI futures of VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were being decided. Dhoni: Yeh teeno ab ODI team main fit nahi baithete. Selector 1: Jo Dhoni ko promote karta hai, Dhoni usi ko aaj bahar nikal raha hai. Selector 2: Yeh in teeno ko nikal ke rukne wala nahi hai. Dhoni: We are all servants and we all are doing duty.And with age, we all see wisdom and get amnesia.
Dog at raincoats?
The other night, at Eden Gardens, 40-odd groundsmen stayed put in spite of heavy rain and got ‘drenched to the bones’. They managed to get the better of the squall that threatened to blow away the tarpaulin sheet covering the outfield, and the KKR-versus-KXIP IPL fixture resumed after a 95-minute stoppage. All the while, raincoats were conspicuous by their absence. The Cricket Asociation of Bengal, on its official Twitter handle, confirmed that the groundsmen had raincoats “for the last 3 years”. Ganguly even tweeted: “Thunder showers for an hour ..rain stops ..game starts in 15 min ..one of best facilities in the world”. Nobody, though, could explain the groundsmen’s ‘reluctance’ to wear them…
Metrosexual Williamson
The cricketing world has sweated over Dhoni’s big-hitting skills being on the wane and rejoiced at its apparent resuscitation this IPL. But there have been graver concerns about him. What’s with his new look? Is it a way to shave off the grey hair on the sides or is it a mohawk? His hair stylist Sapna Motwani has weighed in with the verdict: “It’s not a Mohawk. It’s called the Viking! And like one, he will lead.” So far so good. Another leader has also let go of some hair. Apparently at the urging of his Sunrisers Hyderabad teammate Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson, who had sported a hipster’s beard, has trimmed it down to a more metrosexual look.
KP’s Twitter tatter
There’s no love lost between Kevin Pietersen and “those who played a major part in ending his cricket career”. Not long after his return to England, having spent the first two weeks of the IPL in the commentary box in India, came the Twitter digs at the “Sky commentators” who are “now cashing in on the IPL”.
“The same ones that played a major part in ending my England career. Hilarious how the IPL isn’t viewed as a tournament for mercenaries who only care about cash..!” was the rest of the tweet. He was perhaps referring to the flak that he’d dealt with when becoming the first major English cricketer to embrace the IPL back in 2009. There has been an unprecedented influx of former England cricketers into the commentary panel for the IPL while Sky Sports have their own set-up for the event.
The likes of Michael Vaughan—who’s not a regular Sky panellist— and Nasser Hussain have already come and gone while David Lloyd and Michael Atherton are expected to make their presence felt as the season wages on. That wasn’t the only recent Twitter dig that KP indulged in. Last week, when a journalist questioned his credentials in T20 cricket, Pietersen tweeted: “How many T20 World Cups & Man of the T20 World Cups have you got mate?! Shut up.”
No “Laughlin” Matter
When Delhi Daredevils assistant coach Pravin Amre was asked about his take on Rajasthan Royals’ bowlers in Jaipur last week, he responded, “Dhawal (Kulkarni) and ‘Laughing’ bowled the crucial overs very well.” He was of course referring to Australian pacer Ben Laughlin. It’s not just coaches like Amre, who not only have to cope with the incessant travel & training schedules of their respective teams and be expected to keep an eye for phonetics, even the players are under the kosh about their teammates.Earlier this season, AB de Villiers was asked by Simon Doull to talk about Kulwant Khejroliya while being miked-up on the field. “Ah well, I don’t know honestly. I only saw him bowl a single delivery in the warm-up match and he looked good,” is all a sheepish de Villiers could muster.
A few years ago, Praveen Kumar was asked in a sideline spot interview about his then team’s strategy to open the bowling with Roelof van der Merwe. The Uttar Pradesh pacer smartly chose to go nowhere near trying his luck pronouncing the South African all-rounder’s name. Instead he said, “We’d decided if Brendon McCullum takes strike, woh jo hamara left-arm spinner hai, open karega.” Well played PK.
One-touch pass
Biswarup Dey, the removed former Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) treasurer, alleges “lack of transparency” over the distribution of complimentary tickets for IPL matches at Eden Gardens. He writes to Committee of Administrators head Vinod Rai and threatens hunger strikes. CAB president Sourav Ganguly responds by stopping the distribution of complimentary tickets until he gets written undertakings from the club representatives, attesting transparency. Dey, representing his club Central Calcutta, drops in at the CAB, signs on the dotted line and collects his quota of tickets. A Ganguly acolyte offers an impish smile.