Handing the captaincy over to Dhoni and electronic media threatre!!

[Chandan]

Pradeep Magazine writes about what the over the top electronic media does to the new captains and the moment they face a single failure!! In media’s theatre of dreams, end is never too far And life moves on. Rahul Dravid is past, MSD is the present and the future. Why did a man just decide to quit what we are being told is the second most powerful job in the country? Does any one care? Just keep switching channels and you would think Dhoni has done something so miraculous that we should know the most trivial details of his life, even the number of strands of hair he has! Who knows, the reason for his great success could lie in the length, texture and curve of his locks! He is the man who has and can never see the face of failure. He is the man we had been waiting for all these years, all these decades! God is great and so is My India. Just imagine being bombarded 24X7 with shrill, excited voices supported with images that try to prove how India has suddenly discovered the greatest man on earth. Even if he has a fraction of the qualities attributed to him, Mother India would be the greatest cricketing nation on earth. The same was true of Sourav Ganguly once and the same was true for Dravid once. Until one day, all of a sudden, we discovered that India lose their matches as well. Until one day, all of a sudden, we discovered we are not the best side in the world. Until one day we discovered our batsmen can’t hit every ball they face for a six, our bowlers can’t take a wicket on every ball they bowl and our team can’t win every match it plays. Blessed are those who suffer from amnesia. And even more blessed are those who want to live in the fantasy world created by a monster called the media, which in reality is waiting to guzzle, destroy and smash the very world of dreams it has created, only to move on and create another dream world. Create and destroy. The quicker you can do this, the better you are. Even the gods up there are not so cruel. Poor Dravid must have been left wondering these past few days, somewhere in a corner of earth which by no stretch of imagination can be Jharkhand, that did he exist at all? Was he for real? Dravid may have been Indian cricket’s first victim of the “Great Reality Show†but he won’t be the only one for long. Beware Dhoni, the monster has tasted blood. Have a blast as long as it lasts. ---------------------------------------------------------- This is scary!!

[zubinpepsi]

This is scary!!

But this is reality!!

[Tugga]

Dravid for one would b happy that the media got distracted by the T20 win...and that it dint dissect his quitting (from captaincy) endlessly...i was really frustrated when some newspapers ran articles like "the wall crumbles" and all...call me sensitive but i thought giving this guy some respect wont hurt.....nyway life goes on....! Good article though...sad,scary but true...!!!

[Chandan]

Already there are talks like: King of the world, your crown must not slip! KYUNKI ODis AREN'T T20... *

[Gaurav]

Age age dekho hota hai kya. Good article

[sandtest]

Dhoni has to really show his cool head while handling media.....of course our media is frenzy, hype they generate and after failure the way they trash compliments each other. I hope cool headed Dhoni will come out great.

[apocalypse]

Media in India needs just an occasion to come out with a sarcasm. They are just waiting for an opportunity to pen some masala kind of news

[Tugga]

.......Good article though...sad' date='scary but true...!!![/quote'] Hey I’m your life I’m the one who takes you there Hey I’m your life I’m the one who cares They, They betray I’m your only true friend now They, They’ll betray I’m forever there I’m your dream, make you real I’m your eyes when you must steal I’m your pain when you can’t feel Sad but true - should b the anthem song for the Media...Sad but true by Metallica...! ....talk abt me getting dramatic...

[Chandan]

Here Harsha Bhogle analyses why Dravid would have relinquished the captainships and will the problems which he faced, haunt Dhoni too: Leading by example By: Harsha Bhogle Friday September 21, 2007 An extremely dignified man, and a proud servant of Indian cricket, took two correct decisions on India’s tour of England. One, that the older players had no place in Twenty20 cricket and two, that he didn’t want to be India’s cricket captain any more. The second of those, even if right, was disturbing because it meant a deeply committed man was willing to walk away from something he cherished. One of the great privileges of being a top sportsman, and that is true of a few other professions, is that you can enjoy every day at work. It is what allows you to remain competitive and become better. When the fun goes out of it, it is time to move on and it was becoming apparent in England that the fun was going out of being captain of India for Rahul Dravid. And so, while a captain has gone, it is important to know if the reasons for his going have gone as well. Ideally, a captain should be free to think about the game and his players. If matters outside the playing field begin to occupy his mind more than those on it then there is a problem in the system that is causing it to happen. If a captain has to keep thinking about contracts, coaches, schedules and such other matters that really should be someone else’s responsibility, it is taking away time from his primary activity. Nasser Hussain quit as captain in 2003 because he was being forced to think more about Robert Mugabe than about the opposition. If Dravid has left the job for similar reasons, then all we will have is a new face with the same worries. So far, the man appointed to follow him is doing an excellent job. There is much to like about Dhoni as a person and as a cricketer. He seems to have a balanced head on his strong shoulders and seems quite capable of sizing up situations. It helps to have young legs and unfettered minds in the team and under him, India have surprised many at the World Twenty20 Championships. They have played with passion, with calm minds and have won a crucial cricket match with a catch, a run-out and runs saved in the field. You wouldn’t have thought that was possible three weeks ago when fielders strolled in the deep and lobbed returns in. This is a young man’s game for age, and occasionally, experience, tend to install boundaries in a world of possibilities. Rohit Sharma doesn’t yet know what he cannot do and so plays by sheer instinct. For Robin Uthappa, life is still an adventure where you stumble only to dust yourself and move on. Dinesh Karthik’s fidgety reflexes allow him to reach cricket balls that many won’t even as they make him drop sitters that others won’t! And RP Singh is on this wonderful tour of discovery, becoming, and making us, aware of his great skills. Thursday’s win over South Africa was one of Indian cricket’s better days. And a phenomenal commercial for Twenty20 cricket. India should have been rocked by the withdrawal of a champion batsman but the captain let him sit out and didn’t bother persuading him to play. That is the way to go and in doing so he made a statement on what he thought the rest were capable of. Only Yuvraj will know how bad the pain was but it must have been excruciating enough to warrant missing a game a day after playing the innings of his life. When he plays like he did against England you marvel at his skill because there is little doubt that he is a special cricketer. In a team that has Sehwag and Dhoni in it, he stands aside for the smoothness of his hitting. Yuvraj was born to win matches and it can be a bit frustrating to see the intervals between such efforts. In the shorter versions of the game he now has to assume responsibility as the lead batsman even if it means batting permanently at number three or four. Not for the first time in his life, the big step upward is tugging at his collar. There are a great couple of days in prospect as international cricket’s youngest child takes centre-stage. But the team most equipped to win in the conditions here will have no part to play. South Africa’s extraordinary self-strangulation is an excellent case study on what fear can do. It is difficult to quantify but one of the great truths of sport is that beyond the team list and the statistics and the records, there is always fear in the other camp. ----------------------------------------------------- Very good observations and valid points raised!!

[beetle]

Dhoni 's parents did not come out to acknowledge the fans celebrating the victory...still hurting from the behavior of the same crowd that tried to break the walls of his house.... May be they will keep reminding him of things that can happen .....

[Guest dada_rocks]

Dhoni 's parents did not come out to acknowledge the fans celebrating the victory...still hurting from the behavior of the same crowd that tried to break the walls of his house.... May be they will keep reminding him of things that can happen .....

Good for them.. 24/7 this and that player's mama nana kakaka bhai bahan dada droning live those trise words of "bara achha lag raha hai " ad nauseum was nauseating..

[Chandan]

It is also important to know what Dhoni thinks about captaincy and how does he look forward to the tougher challenges ahead. G. Rajaraman writes an excellent article on Dhoni, the capain, here taking his views about it. Keeper Of Hits Dhoni's candour masks a rush of kinetics. The new ODI skipper must retain his gusto. Updates G. Rajaraman on Mahendra Singh Dhoni Mohinder Amarnath and Anil Kumble, cricketing giants in their own right, have had the privilege of leading the Indian team in but one one-day international each. And the evidence is there for all to see that it's a job that does no good to your hairline. Yet there must be a million and more lads out there who will readily admit to dreaming of the glory of captaining Team India some day. "To be honest, it is every cricketer's dream to lead India," says Indian opener Gautam Gambhir. Anointed captain of the Indian ODI squad for 12 matches after Rahul Dravid's unexpected resignation, Mahendra Singh Dhoni amazes everyone with his confession that he did not cherish great hopes of landing the top job in Indian sport.Not even after he started playing for India just under three years ago. "I never expected to play for India. So I didn't expect captaincy either," he says. "It was not an issue for me at all. I just wanted to play cricket and enjoy it." Do not, even for a moment, let this have you believe that the reins of India's ODI squad have changed hands from one reluctant customer to another. At the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa—a format that places huge, almost killing demands on captains—Dhoni has shown his aptitude for the job and has proven to be a quick learner. With a bit of luck—and support from three men who have led India in nearly 300 matches—he may yet take after the earthy resourcefulness of one his predecessors, a certain Kapil Dev. In any case, he becomes only the second Indian ODI captain to reside in a non-metro city. The selectors did not have too many options. They did not wish to go back to Sachin Tendulkar or Sourav Ganguly—that would have been considered a retrograde step. And the likes of Virender Sehwag, who has led India in five ODIs, and Yuvraj Singh were ruled out—the first because he has not been in the ODI side since returning from Bangladesh, and the latter because he appears to be serving some kind of parole with the selectors. Dhoni realises that leading Team India is going to be one of the most challenging jobs in world cricket. "Yes, I think it is. It seriously is, I am telling you," he says. To be sure, along with startling reflexes and wrists of supple steel that defies coaching-book proprieties, the 26-year-old brings a native sense of humour that will help him in the teeth of the storms and the stresses that go with the job. "Hopefully I will have the smile (in the future as well). I don't know how I will react to it, though. If the team does well, nobody bothers you. So, the motto should be to do well in every match." "It feels quite good," he continues. "I have been captain of the T20 side and now am captain of the ODI team for 12 matches. The seven-match series against Australia and the five-match series against Pakistan are critical for the team. We have been on a long tour of Ireland, England and South Africa and it will be nice to play in home conditions again. I realise it is vital for us to perform well in those matches." Some of his joy will be tempered by having to lead a side that is defined as being talented but inconsistent, and by the presence of three big guns in the side—Sachin, Sourav and Dravid. "I haven't had the time to reflect on captaincy since I have been busy and focused on the T20 games against England and South Africa. That is crucial for us," he says. "There is a gap of three or four days after the T20 tournament and that is when I will think about it." The credo is simple: one thing at a time and do that well. Dhoni is a people's person and can be won over by logic and reason. His maiden interaction with the media in Durban after he was named captain of the ODI squad on Tuesday almost did not take place because he wanted others in his T20 team be in the spotlight. "I don't want to expose myself to the media so much," he said, trying to explain his reluctance to talk to the press. After some journalists convinced him that it was incumbent on him to share his emotions with fans back home through the media, he took a few questions. That is not the only trait that makes chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar wax eloquent about Dhoni having all the qualities of a good captain. "This is the right time to groom him," Vengsarkar, himself an ex-India skipper, said when announcing the elevation of the vice-captain. He also indicated that the panel could be looking elsewhere for a Test captain. "It (Test captaincy) is a tougher proposition, so we will have to think of other options also." One of the things that can go against Dhoni being named captain of the Test team is the fact that he is a wicket-keeper-batsman. "It's too difficult to be wicketkeeper and captain. A wicketkeeper on his own cannot be a good captain. It cannot work, it's just too difficult," says Ali Bacher, acknowledged as one of South Africa's finest skippers. "I did keep wickets in the early part of my career but gave it up when I became captain. It was too much. As a wicketkeeper you have to concentrate on every ball. Looking after 10 others on the field and strategising makes it tougher." Perhaps it is such intense demands that made Dravid realise his shelf-life as captain of the Indian team had run out. Dravid, who has always believed in doing things right, did not want a press conference—he must have had enough of those over two years—since he believed in dealing just with board president Sharad Pawar. In what must have been one of Indian cricket's best kept secrets in a long time, Dravid's decision to relinquish the captaincy did not find its way to the public domain before it was officially announced. In any case, in the time that remains till he hangs up his boots, Dravid can go back to being a commoner in the team—or rather, an elder statesman along with Tendulkar and Ganguly. And he will be hoping that his own batsmanship flowers into a final, late flourish like Ganguly's in the past year. Meanwhile, as a young man from Indian cricket's hinterland takes over the captaincy from a metro-based veteran, some contrasts are too patent. One has said he'd had enough of the captaincy, while the other says he hadn't expected it. He may not have dreamt about India captaincy until he was handed the job, but Dhoni may well end up nurturing the dream of millions of cricket lovers—presiding over an Indian team that performs consistently. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let us all keep our fingers crossed for Dhoni performing well as a skipper in ODIs.

[Lurker]

Pradeep Magazine writes about what the over the top electronic media does to the new captains and the moment they face a single failure!!

It is not only the electronic media but every single expert that covered 20/20 accepted Dhoni as the Captain of the tournament. Yeah sure you can argue it is only 20/20 but when was the last time a Ganguly, a Dravid or a SRT ever got that kind of accolodate(in any format)? Ian Chappell called him a fearless leader. Peter Roebuck calls him as a natural leader of men, a swasbuckler, a gamblor with a calculator. Ravi Shastri called him as an endearing leader. Over the top?? Not really. When people like Ian, Roebuck and Shastri say you better listen. I know I would much rather listen to them than a Pradeep Magazine. xxx

[DesiChap]

Hopefully he is not handed over the Test captaincy over the euphoria of the 2020 championship win though I am certain the selectors will do just that. He should be given test captaincy after the away Australia test series.

[beetle]

No one is saying he isn't...just wondering if the media will stay with him when the chips are down.....

[Lurker]

No one is saying he isn't...just wondering if the media will stay with him when the chips are down.....

I must say that I have started to wonder if there are Indian fans who would much rather see him shot down. Now I know most will come back with a "No no no its that we mean" but ask yourself this very simple question - When was the last time an Indian skipper was deemed the best in the business, in any format? Right. So Dhoni it is then. Lets not meander into ifs and buts. xxx

[Aditi]

Just imagine being bombarded 24X7 with shrill, excited voices supported with images that try to prove how India has suddenly discovered the greatest man on earth. Even if he has a fraction of the qualities attributed to him, Mother India would be the greatest cricketing nation on earth.

I had to mute the volume after 10 mins of watching the convoy coverage. Awful, was like listening to a bunch of banshees.

[Chandan]

It is not only the electronic media but every single expert that covered 20/20 accepted Dhoni as the Captain of the tournament. Yeah sure you can argue it is only 20/20 but when was the last time a Ganguly, a Dravid or a SRT ever got that kind of accolodate(in any format)? Ian Chappell called him a fearless leader. Peter Roebuck calls him as a natural leader of men, a swasbuckler, a gamblor with a calculator. Ravi Shastri called him as an endearing leader. Over the top?? Not really. When people like Ian, Roebuck and Shastri say you better listen. I know I would much rather listen to them than a Pradeep Magazine. xxx

Lurker, read the article properly to capture what the guy is trying to say. And then since you don't live in India, you don't know which details, most of which were trivial, about Dhoni kept on coming on TV channels ever since Dravid relinquished the captaincy and BCCI announced MSD as the skipper. Do you know where Dhoni's ancestral home is? It is in Almora, Uttaranchal. And they kept on talking to all the people of the village discussing some absolutely stupid and trivial things. And this article is just after Ind-Pak bowl-out match. You can read the article now in proper perspective!

[Lurker]

Lurker, read the article properly to capture what the guy is trying to say. And then since you don't live in India, you don't know which details, most of which were trivial, about Dhoni kept on coming on TV channels ever since Dravid relinquished the captaincy and BCCI announced MSD as the skipper.

I find it highly patronizing to be told where I live, or do not live. Dhoni coming on television channels had little to do with Dhoni himself! Please feel free to read articles on the very same media that you are chastising where Dhoni clearly says his team not to get carried away.

Do you know where Dhoni's ancestral home is? It is in Almora, Uttaranchal. And they kept on talking to all the people of the village discussing some absolutely stupid and trivial things.

Yes I do, thanks very much. And again this has little to do with Dhoni himself. This has more to do with Indian media, and people like me and you, who feed off it. The very same media also highlighted how Indian hockey players who won Asia Cup are greatly saddened at not receiving even half the mention as Indian 20/20 cricketers and a few of them are planning to go on hunger strike infront of a CM. With all due respect I do not see you, or anyone else for that matter, highlighting that. Point being - Stop chastising media, or Dhoni. If you wanna find fault stop with Indian fans first.

And this article is just after Ind-Pak bowl-out match. You can read the article now in proper perspective!

Again quite patronizing for you to make me see the perspective. Can we keep personal issues here?? xxx

[beetle]

tumne article pada kya?...where are you getting "I must say that I have started to wonder if there are Indian fans who would much rather see him shot down" this from....?