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Dhoni has retired from Test Cricket with immediate effect

Gambit

By Gambit
in Cricket Talk

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oneANDone Newbie

oneANDone

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Posted
Whats so hard about this...most of the people says the same thing about MSD here on this very forum...the Real Indian Cricket fans... :((
Its not their fault, they just simply don't want to think beyond media lobby. If u ask them why this venom against him, they simply quote some reference from 'xyz' article. These people are just brainless rats fell for peanuts at best.:icflove:
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moniker Newbie

moniker

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Posted
Whats so hard about this...most of the people says the same thing about MSD here on this very forum...the Real Indian Cricket fans... :((
I thought most people on this forum (including me) were just happy that Dhoni has retired from tests. Haven't read any post saying that Dhoni should be banned for this abrupt retirement lol.
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CSK Fan Newbie

CSK Fan

Posted
Posted
Whats so hard about this...most of the people says the same thing about MSD here on this very forum...the Real Indian Cricket fans... :((
Its not their fault, they just simply don't want to think beyond media lobby. If u ask them why this venom against him, they simply quote some reference from 'xyz' article. These people are just brainless rats fell for peanuts at best.:icflove:
Except no one here has ever said that he should be banned for retiring mid-way or any such sh!t (unless they were joking). Ironical that posts complaining of media lobby and not thinking make the same mistakes themselves
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BeautifulGame Newbie

BeautifulGame

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A letter to the recently-retired Test cricketer Dhoni on what he means to the common Indian fan Dear Dhoni, I’m not a sports writer. I haven’t seen you in action in all your Test matches. I wouldn’t know how you’ve fared when compared to Dada or Azharuddin. But then, I don’t need to know any of this to write to you. I’ve got up early in the morning to watch you captain a team and bat when the Indian cricket team was touring. I’ve spent a lot of money and begged random people for tickets to IPL matches, just to watch you finish off a game. I’ve clung on to the MRTS in Chennai; your second home, to reach Chepauk to hear the lions roar. Which is exactly why I wish to tell you that the decision to quit Test cricket was a brave one. There have been other cricketers in the past — and no, I’m not talking about anyone in particular — who have dragged their feet and overstayed their welcome. But you didn’t. You knew that you had stayed long enough and done whatever you could’ve done, and you left. Letting go must have been difficult and to not let us in on your decision, must have been tougher. But, the decision to quit a major format of the game when the recently out-of-form Virat Kohli was just getting his groove back and ‘ready’ was a brilliant one. Yes, critics might still dissect the fact that you did so in the middle of a series, but we, as fans, are sure that you would’ve known that Kohli was ready. That’s the thing with you, Captain. You just know what to do when. You just knew that Joginder Sharma was the man to turn to in the final of the World T20 in 2007. You just knew that Irfan Pathan was the bowler to pick on and go after that unforgettable Dharamshala match. You just knew that you had to promote yourself up the order to get us past Sri Lanka in the 50-over World Cup. You just somehow know and we ove that. When we watch you from the stands, we sometimes get to know how that works. You seem to have a premonition of things to come; the way you juggle your field for a wicket suggests that. I vividly remember one IPL match in which you walked all the way to the bowler, discussed something and made a man stand at a fielding position that old-timers would scoff at… but sure enough, you got us a wicket the very next ball. When, as a reporter-fan, I approached you for a quote and you said, “Sorry, you gotta speak to the manager mate,†your approachability appealed to me. And then, when I saw you hugging Ashwin from behind and scaring him, just like how we do every day with friends, your candidness appealed to me. Perhaps all this is due to your small-town roots. Something that you’ve not let go, despite international fame, money and recognition. Why else would you decide to, in the middle of a really hectic series, bike on a traffic-filled and busy Mount Road? Why else would you try sneaking into the city on a bike and then wait on the highway when it had flat tyre? We love all these small things about you. They make Dhoni the man who, perhaps, is much bigger than Dhoni the cricketer. Regards A fan PS: Boy, we so loved the timing of your recent decision — on in the last few days of the year — and the sudden way it came upon us. Ditch the whites and get the colours on, Dhoni. We’re ready with the whistles. http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/whistle-podu/article6748314.ece

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Sidhoni Newbie

Sidhoni

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I don’t think anyone knew Mahendra Singh Dhoni. I don’t think anyone was meant to. I certainly didn’t know him very well. I had dinner with him once and it was revealing. He had come over to the apartment we were at in Adelaide. My colleague had cooked, I was warming the pre-cooked chapattis and he came over and said he would do it himself. He talked freely. When he had finished dinner, he picked up his plate, walked across to the basin, washed it and placed it upside down on the platform next to it. He volunteered to wash the other plates. I tried telling him that he must speak to India’s cricket lovers more often. He nodded and smiled. Of course, he didn’t. But I got the feeling that evening that I was talking to someone who was not trapped by the game. We all are, in some ways, because cricket offers us so much. It fills our lives, but that evening, I got the feeling that Dhoni was in it and yet detached. He talked about bikes, about planes, about guns, about wanting to become a sniper! I remember telling my colleague, “I won’t be surprised if he just walks away from the game and never comes back.” He hasn’t yet because while he has finished with Test cricket, he remains in the form he has been far better at. But he has walked away with no fuss at all. In a nation that is obsessed with being centre-stage, I am not sure he ever sought it. Remember the long-haired new captain who had just won India the first World T20? He had given away his match shirt to someone in the crowd and was walking away quietly. The more suave captain who had won India the World Cup of 2011? Spot him in any of the pictures? He let it be Sachin Tendulkar’s moment. He let it be about Indian cricket. It wasn’t about him and he didn’t force himself into every frame. It was, actually, his evening but he looked at it from afar. I thought it was cool. The sign of a confident man. He made a statement by not being there. I don’t know if that is cool today but he rose in my eyes. I tell the story because it helps us understand the person and therefore, what he has just done. -Watch: Top moments from MS Dhoni's last day in whites -Watch: MS Dhoni - the mastermind behind the win at Lord's What he did in Test cricket was remarkable. He took his rustic game, the firm jab, the slash over point, and he squeezed more out of it than you would have thought possible. An average of 38 is excellent for someone who did as many squats behind the stumps as he did, for someone who had to be in the game always. It is very, very difficult to be a wicket-keeper, a captain and a batsman. He did it for 60 Tests. It was remarkable. Yes, it wasn’t his favourite format and that isn’t a crime. It is extremely difficult to captain India overseas for it means taking 20 wickets quickly enough. He didn’t have Anil Kumble, no Harbhajan Singh or Zaheer Khan at their peak; no J Srinath, even S Sreesanth and RP Singh had fallen off a cliff. Eventually, every Indian captain overseas is forced to play a waiting game. You can show bluster for a while, you can set attacking fields but the scoreboard always tells the story. If you can’t take 20 wickets, you can’t win and Dhoni never had that. Towards the end, it affected the way he led the side. We all become creatures of our experience. He knew too that it was time to let someone less wounded by overseas defeats to take over. That is why he liked one-day cricket. It has two logical ends. If you can’t take 10 wickets, you squeeze out 50 overs. In the last couple of years, as bats grew bigger, as end overs hitting became more sophisticated, he struggled there too because his team didn’t take enough wickets early on. But at least you could outscore the opposition over 50 overs. In Test cricket, he couldn’t do that. So India increasingly looked like a side that waited for the opposition to set the game. It was different in India where he had the surfaces that allowed his bowlers to dominate. Read: Dhoni inspired a generation to aim for the sky, and reach it Read: Cricket world reacts to Dhoni’s retirement As a player too, he changed. As everyone does. The bravado that so defined his early innings died away a bit. Youth inevitably morphs into a responsible man. I think he grew up and grew out of the next generation that, like the waves, always comes faster than you think. His best innings have been in limited overs cricket where he competes in a small short list to be India’s finest cricketer. In Test cricket, he was a contributor, not a leader, though those who saw his double century against Australia in Chennai will savour memories of a genuinely great innings. But those didn’t come often. Maybe we are dissatisfied because we compare him to Adam Gilchrist, an extraordinary batsman who kept wickets. Maybe the image of an outstanding limited overs batsman boosted our expectation of him as a Test match batsman. Still, an average of 38 from number seven is not to be laughed at. Of course, he will be missed. His calmness, his dignity on the field. But when the time comes to write a similar story when he finishes with limited overs cricket, we will grow far more wistful. There, he is the poker player, in his element with the cards he holds close to his chest. Oh there, he is a legend, almost incomparable. What Dhoni achieved though, goes way beyond the numbers he produced. He told young Indians in small towns that they could conquer the world. To them he was the beacon, he was the dream that maybe they could achieve too. He showed the way. It is a substantial, and wonderful, thing in life to do. When he finishes there, I don’t think we will know too much more about him though.
by Harsha Bhogle
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putrevus Grand Master

putrevus

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He didn’t have Anil Kumble, no Harbhajan Singh or Zaheer Khan at their peak; no J Srinath, even S Sreesanth and RP Singh had fallen off a cliff. Eventually, every Indian captain overseas is forced to play a waiting game. You can show bluster for a while, you can set attacking fields but the scoreboard always tells the story. If you can’t take 20 wickets, you can’t win and Dhoni never had that. Harsha is totally wrong even when he had bowlers to get 20 wickets , he never gave them a chance like his ridiculous declaration in NZ in 2009 when all he had to do was ,give his bowlers time or not going for win in WI. These things matter a lot in long run, wins give bowlers and team confidence.He had idea on how to handle fast bowlers.He inherited a very good team which did not need any captaincy in India. It needed a daring approach overseas instead this team became timid and started to resemble 1990s team under dhobi tigers at home and lambs overseas.

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