imaginary interview with MS Dhoni
Answers
Q: You’ve been one of the most successful captains ever in the game. While some glorify you as a great captain, some give you the label of just being the captain of a great Indian team. Some say Indian team rose to glory because of a great MSD but others say MSD rose to glory because of a great Indian team. What’s your say on this?
A: Public can never be homogenous. Mixture of people implies mixture of opinions. All cannot think the same way. Therefore, differences of opinions are prone to occur. To me, both the schools of thinking are not conflicting. They are just complementary. Cricket is not like lawn tennis! Cricket is a team game. A single person cannot play for all the eleven players of a team. Match-winners evolve for just one game. A single person cannot bring glory to the team unless he is equally complemented by the others in the team. I am proud enough to say that I have got a great team. I’m lucky enough to be the captain of a team with each player having an outstanding potential. So, both the statements are partially true and inter-dependent.
Q: I think you need a bit more clarification on the question. Let us take for example, when Sourav Ganguly was the Indian captain, Indian cricket was in shatters. Neither did we have foundation, nor pillars. He started from the first step of building up a team. There was only Sachin and a couple of other in form batsman. Statistics say cricketers like Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag etc evolved under Ganguly. So when you became the captain, you had to start only from where Ganguly left. You had finished products in your side. Didn’t that make your job a lot easier?
A: Ganguly is indeed a great captain. There’s no denying the fact that many of our players evolved during his reign as a captain. But I did not start from where Ganguly left it. If my memory and the stats is right, I started from where Rahul Dravid left. I started from where Anil Kumble left. My first assignment as a captain was the inaugural ICC Twenty 20 World Cup back in 2007. If I remember right, it was also a time where Indian cricket was in complete turmoil. We had performed pretty poorly at the 50-over format World Cup in West Indies the same year, and when it came to the Twenty 20 World Cup, I lead a team without Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman and many more big names. Ours was a much inexperienced squad with some new names like Rohit Sharma, Yuraj
Q: Analysts and cricket experts point out that Indian cricket has seen the best and the worst form in recent times. We won the World Cup last year and the same team India lost 8 overseas test matches consecutively. Your comments?
A: It is a law of nature that a good thing has to be followed by a bad thing which in turn, gets followed by a good thing and so on. If there is a high, there ought to be a low. Please don’t think that I am holding science as an excuse to our poor performance in Test matches, but I was reasoning out some facts. Bad times will come. At the end of the day, it is all about overcoming the bad times. That is when you stand the test of time. The conditions were tough for us in England and Australia. We had players who were totally unaccustomed to the conditions there. At the same time, we had legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman who had a lifetime experience playing abroad. Unfortunately, all of us failed equally which meant there was something wrong. Taking nothing away from the opposition, we still could have played our game better. There were a lot of areas where things did not go upto the level of our expectations. Cricket is an interesting game. Some things may seem ironic. But then, where is the beauty of the game without these little ironies and surprises?
Q: Any final words to your fans, especially going into the world cup?
A: Yes. They are the backbone for us. The crowd support is the real driving force for a team. It is quite evident when we play home matches. Even when we played in countries like England and South Africa, the Indian supporters residing there, came to the ground to watch the match, creating a home-like atmosphere for us. All I have to tell everyone of them is, to keep supporting us. Not just supporting, keep motivating, criticizing, monitoring and appreciating whenever whatever is needed to be done. We, not just in the upcoming world cup, but also in all future aspects, make a vow to try and give our hundred percent so that regardless of the result, we can hold our heads high!
At last make me brainest, and follow me
Q: You’ve been one of the most successful captains ever in the game. While some glorify you as a great captain, some give you the label of just being the captain of a great Indian team. Some say Indian team rose to glory because of a great MSD but others say MSD rose to glory because of a great Indian team. What’s your say on this?
A: Public can never be homogenous. Mixture of people implies mixture of opinions. All cannot think the same way. Therefore, differences of opinions are prone to occur. To me, both the schools of thinking are not conflicting. They are just complementary. Cricket is not like lawn tennis! Cricket is a team game. A single person cannot play for all the eleven players of a team. Match-winners evolve for just one game. A single person cannot bring glory to the team unless he is equally complemented by the others in the team. I am proud enough to say that I have got a great team. I’m lucky enough to be the captain of a team with each player having an outstanding potential. So, both the statements are partially true and inter-dependent.
Q: I think you need a bit more clarification on the question. Let us take for example, when Sourav Ganguly was the Indian captain, Indian cricket was in shatters. Neither did we have foundation, nor pillars. He started from the first step of building up a team. There was only Sachin and a couple of other in form batsman. Statistics say cricketers like Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag etc evolved under Ganguly. So when you became the captain, you had to start only from where Ganguly left. You had finished products in your side. Didn’t that make your job a lot easier?
A: Ganguly is indeed a great captain. There’s no denying the fact that many of our players evolved during his reign as a captain. But I did not start from where Ganguly left it. If my memory and the stats is right, I started from where Rahul Dravid left. I started from where Anil Kumble left. My first assignment as a captain was the inaugural ICC Twenty 20 World Cup back in 2007. If I remember right, it was also a time where Indian cricket was in complete turmoil. We had performed pretty poorly at the 50-over format World Cup in West Indies the same year, and when it came to the Twenty 20 World Cup, I lead a team without Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman and many more big names. Ours was a much inexperienced squad with some new names like Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan etc. Robin Uthappa, Sreesanth, Joginder Sharma etc were all young bloods. Just like how Bhajji, Yuvi and Viru evolved during Ganguly’s time, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin evolved during this period. Every captain can give you his list of players like this. Indian cricket under myself and Ganguly are two entirely different phenomena which cannot be compared. It is tough to make comparisons. We only see the negative side of everything. Indian cricket had a good time under Ganguly. If you believe Indian cricket is having a good time under me, let us all be happy about it.
Q: Analysts and cricket experts point out that Indian cricket has seen the best and the worst form in recent times. We won the World Cup last year and the same team India lost 8 overseas test matches consecutively. Your comments?
A: It is a law of nature that a good thing has to be followed by a bad thing which in turn, gets followed by a good thing and so on. If there is a high, there ought to be a low. Please don’t think that I am holding science as an excuse to our poor performance in Test matches, but I was reasoning out some facts. Bad times will come. At the end of the day, it is all about overcoming the bad times. That is when you stand the test of time. The conditions were tough for us in England and Australia. We had players who were totally unaccustomed to the conditions there. At the same time, we had legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman who had a lifetime experience playing abroad. Unfortunately, all of us failed equally which meant there was something wrong. Taking nothing away from the opposition, we still could have played our game better. There were a lot of areas where things did not go upto the level of our expectations. Cricket is an interesting game. Some things may seem ironic. But then, where is the beauty of the game without these little