Michael Atherton takes a dig at Dhoni

[achilles]

I think Sanjay and many of our commies, bar Siddhu, Shaz and Sunny (3 S' there) try to be funny with their international friends. Nothing wrong with that. Where they go wrong is when they overdo it. And the 3 S' do a good job of moderation.

[BERGKAMP]

Athers the Chodu getting Pwned by Pigeon Mcgrath :giggle: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFXSTi56Bek]YouTube - Michael Atherton vs Glenn McGrath all 19 dismissals in order! Sorry Mr Atherton![/ame]

[Prakat]

^ :two_thumbs_up: That should be on his headstone: "caught Healy, bowled McGrath"

[punjabi_khota]

We Indians play the most amount of cricket as compared to all teams in one year. I guess somewhere around 280 days. Do we complain? I think KP and Athers really need to grow up. My word of advice to KP, England and anyone complaning about schedule would be- "Don't make excuses. If I would've been in your place, I would not complain. I would rather consider myself fortunate to get a chance to wear the jersey on my chest and play with the pride of having the Indian cap on my head and the dreams of a million in my heart".

:hysterical::hysterical: You high brah. At 40 ODIs and 10 tests plus max 15 games of IPL, thats still ~110 days.

[mohd_tariq]

Dhoni will do ads and win the worldcup for India shut the *** up atherthon ...we know u r broke and just jealous.

Artherton probably earned in his entire career what Dhoni earned in 3 months of IPL...........Jealous nahee hoga toh kya

[Bublu Bhuyan]

TAKE THAT, MR. ATHERTON :hysterical::hysterical:

[goose]

Mike Atherton Chief Cricket Correspondent Last updated April 4 2011 12:01AM Captain displayed admirable courage to seize the moment in the World Cup final and so fulfil the expectations of a nation This was a triumph of leadership, pure and simple. The question throughout was not whether India had the talent to win the World Cup, but whether they had the men to do it. Could they cope with the round-the-clock scrutiny, the suffocating, allencompassing demands of a public for whom anything other than the ultimate victory would have been unacceptable? In short, did they have the bottle? They had it all right — whole jeroboams of it — and, on a magnificent and moving night in Mumbai that sealed the glorious career of one modern master while bringing down the curtain on another, nobody embodied this strength of mind and character more than their captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dhoni had been in terrible form with the bat throughout this tournament and yet, with the match in the balance at 114 for three in the 22nd over, he promoted himself above the in-form Yuvraj Singh and sent the clearest message to his team that he was going to lead them to the promised land. His unbeaten 91, topped off with a towering six over long-on to finish the match, was an astonishing innings. It was fashioned under pressure but with a freedom found mostly a peg or two down from the kind of stage upon which a World Cup final is played. The greatest innings played by a captain in a World Cup final was Clive Lloyd’s monumental hundred against Australia at Lord’s in the inaugural tournament in 1975, and if this was not its equal then it was not far behind. Lloyd was in Mumbai in his role as chairman of the ICC’s cricket committee and as Dhoni passed him on the stage to collect his man-of-the-match award, the West Indian would have recognised a fellow traveller. From his first ball, which he blocked — but with such crispness and determination in his footwork — it was clear that Dhoni was ready to seize the moment. He has an unorthodox, ugly technique, all bottom-hand shovels and open-chested pushes, but on a night such as this, cricket is more a test of mind than technique. Dhoni understands his game, is able to fashion it according to the situation and had absolute faith in his ability to deliver when it mattered. As well as the finishing six, there was another smote over deep point off Thisara Perera, a reminder of the brutal power that those close to the team insist is natural rather than the result of hard gym work. On the podium at the end of the evening he explained his decision to move up the order. He wanted, he said, to give his younger players more of an opportunity in the early group matches, but now, with a final to win and two off spinners bowling, he felt that the time was right to promote himself. And then, for the first time in six weeks, he gave us an idea of the kind of scrutiny that accompanies every decision the cricket captain of India makes. He knew, he said, what the questions would be if his team did not win, how they would query the selection of Sreesanth over Ravichandran Ashwin and wonder why he had promoted himself above a man who had won four man-of-the-match awards in the tournament. He knew that the questions would come and he felt only that he could provide the answer. That is what Dhoni has been living with throughout the past six weeks. Nobody, except Sachin Tendulkar, has been under more scrutiny. Every decision, every move, every statement has been pored over by an army of writers and pundits. After the defeat by South Africa, Dhoni criticised his batsmen for playing to the gallery and it was as if he had tossed a meaty bone to the most voracious pack of jackals imaginable. Partly because of his reluctance to say anything remotely meaningful or controversial, they gnawed on this juicy offering for days on end. When, in the same match, he gave Ashish Nehra the final over instead of Harbhajan Singh, an instinctive move that was perfectly reasonable but one that backfired, it was a ploy that was similarly commented upon and chewed over. Throughout, though, Dhoni has carried himself with the air of a man for whom such matters were trivial. Not once, until he let the mask slip on the podium, did he complain about the spotlight; not once did he lose his cool on the field. When, in the semi-final against Pakistan, he was asked to rate the game in order of importance, he said nonchalantly that it was a big game but nothing more and that he had played in many such matches. During the shemozzle of a toss before the start of the final, Dhoni did not kick up a fuss after believing that he had called correctly. He simply stood by while the match referee made his decision and, having lost the second toss, said that, yes, he would liked to have batted first, but that he had confidence in the ability of his team to chase any score. When he came into the India team he was a bit of a show pony, if truth be told, riding his man-of-the-match bike around the outfield and playing crazy shots almost for the sake of it. Few would have guessed that a mature leader was lurking within. Yet there he was on Saturday evening as the fireworks lit the skyline, millions hanging on his every word and waiting for the moment when he would become only the second India captain to grasp the World Cup. His calmness throughout has been a key factor in enabling this team to reach their potential. There were other heroes on the night. Tendulkar was carried around the outfield at the close, and why shouldn’t he be, Virat Kohli said, because Tendulkar has carried Indian cricket for so long. There was Gautam Gambhir, a modern-day Larry Gomes, forever underappreciated and surrounded by flashier types, who ought to have scored a hundred to cherish but who lost his head when three runs away. There was Mahela Jayawardena, one of the most decent men in the game, who did score a hundred, and a sublime one at that, and, of course, Murali, the great Murali, who finished with a whimper and a reminder that this is a young man’s game. And then there were the people of Mumbai. These words are being typed at 2.30am, three hours after Dhoni had lifted the cup, and still the celebrations continue, the firecrackers sounding, the horns blowing and the tricolours fluttering madly on the breeze. Extraordinary scenes on an extraordinary night for Indian cricket.

[flamy]

^ :hysterical:

[vvvslaxman]

O'rly athers !!! :hysterical: I gotta say.. Dhoni is a magnet. Pretty much everyone is stunned by Dhoni's stage presence in the final. Even the hardest critic of Dhoni must have done a 180 degree turn.

[Ramzz]

Humble pies from Dhoni to Athers.

[Dhruv200]

ATHERS is not even gud enought to clean Dhoni,s shoes

[BERGKAMP]

This is hell for Athers right now, having to big up MSD and India when really inside he is being eaten up by his bitterness towards us.

[achilles]

I don't care about what Athers says or does. Who is he? How is he going to impact Dhoni' date=' the team selection and a potential 100 at Mohali? I would rather just let him talk what he wants to and get himself pwned on international television, just like his mate Ian Chappell. That would be justice.[/quote'] Calling Outie. MS scored a fantastic 91 and led us to victory. Talk about Justice :two_thumbs_up:

[King Tendulkar]

This is hell for Athers right now' date=' having to big up MSD and India when really inside he is being eaten up by his bitterness towards us.[/quote'] Love it:--D

[ganeshran]

Nothing like eating your own words