Bangalore Star, March 28, Friday
Another Sad Day for Indian Cricket
by Avinash Katagi
It is another sad day for Indian cricket, with stories doing the rounds that Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s name is also part of the cricket betting scandal. It reminds us of the day when the then most successful captain India had ever seen, Md Azharuddin, was named in the match fixing scandal that shook India and the world.
As a cricketer who has gone through a very tough battle with himself and a bigger battle with the BCCI which ended only when I quit the game, I think I should talk about the pressures that would have pushed Dhoni into this situation. He was known as this simple boy from Jharkhand who grew up drinking milk. The wonder of such a simple boy turning into a match-winning finisher and then a shrewd captain who got the nickname Captain Cool, has sustained him all these years.
But Dhoni is also growing old. At the last T20 World Cup, he disarmingly told the world media that he is the oldest man in his team. And that is increasingly true. Other than Yuvraj Singh, who is also obviously not at his best, Dhoni is the oldest and is under huge pressure to cope up with younger, fitter and more attacking cricketers. He has to match up to the best of them, and like all of us, he is facing that burden round his neck, of expectations.
Dhoni’s crime in the case of BCCI N Srinivasan and his son-in-law Gurunath Meyyappan is one more of omission rather than commission in my opinion. Perhaps he knew that wrong things were happening, at least where Meyyappan is concerned, but he probably chose to close his eyes to it rather than upset a winning team. I have been in similar situations and other than my captain and friend Ratan Ghatge, I do not know of any others who could have faced up to the situation and fought.
Dhoni’s biggest problem is his fame and his own image. The two are out to crush him and it is very difficult for anyone in his position to extricate himself without taint. Look at how Azhar is still struggling to overcome what happened to him -- one of India’s greatest players who couldn’t play his 100th test, due to the findings of a committee on match fixing.
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