Dhoni has a totally different approach to on-field and off-field lives in cricket. Mind you, I am talking approach and not end-result (Number of runs and number of endorsements may make him look very similar to others). The problem with people is that they don't want change as it helps them to continue with their established way of cribbing. One should look at Dhoni's appointment as a refreshing change in leadership. A leadership that may borrow ideas from outrageously different sports. A leadership that may look to anull politics than to use it favorably (like Ganguly) or to succumb to it (like most others). Dhoni's best weapons are his unconventional approach, style, thinking and behavior. His body language inspires confidence and aggression. As for the challenges from Australian off-field assault, I am looking forward to yet another unconventional Dhoniism. In my opinion, this is the best series to test his mettle. Let us wish him luck and just sit back and enjoy a different style of leadership. Let us keep our judgment suspended for next couple of months atleast.
Virender Sehwag can destroy lee, Bracken and Tait!! We need him badly!! It is a flawed selection which will only undermine confidence of people like Sehwag and Rohit sharma who find themselves excluded!!
RE:Sehwag omission a selection blunder....
by abhishek pandey on Sep 19, 2007 02:49 AM Permalink
A boundary in a total of 5 runs cannot hurt even a gully bowler!
It is going to be the starting of downfall of Dhoni's cricketing career. He is such a great cricketer and has a mammoth of a career ahead. Shouldering him with such a responsibility which could not be handled by a veteran like Dravid is stupidity. Huge Huge mistake by the most idiotic people involved in Indian cricket - The Board Selectors. They always prove that there is no cricketing brain with them. They just want to end a suddenly arised problem somehow, anyway, as quickly as possible. When will the BCCI act with confidence ?? For how long they will go on with this trial and error method.
Rahul said rightly that many senior people do poor fielding. He has no courage to say that many senior players intentionaly do poor fielding. At the time of Pataudi many senior players like Dilip Sardesai, Kundrun and many senior players dropped catches intentionally, just to fail Pataudi. Pataudi complain and openly gave their name but no action. Rahul should openly say who are they? The BCCI should take action.
RE:Serious Question? Sincere people to reply.
by deepa on Sep 19, 2007 01:21 AM Permalink
Why cant a 12th man be appointed captain of Indian Team. He has no job to do. Let him play the huge role. I am sure we will succeed.
RE:Serious Question? Sincere people to reply.
by abhishek pandey on Sep 19, 2007 02:56 AM Permalink
Lee Germon (NZ) was a good captain, though the results do not show that (Only 1 win & 5 losses in 12 tests).
RE:Serious Question? Sincere people to reply.
by Sarath Chandra on Sep 19, 2007 01:27 AM Permalink
If we can compare results of all wicket keeper captains against non-wicket keeper captains, we would get a fair idea about your question.
I don't know if there is a way to find that out in cricinfo. I basically think, we are more impatient with bowler-captains and wicket-keeper captains, than batsman-captains. I think this is because, we cannot "carry" a non-performing bowler or non-performing wicket-keeper in a side, but we can carry a non-performing batsman for a considerable amount of time (examples of Ganguly, Mark Taylor, Mike Brearley easily come to mind).
RE:Serious Question? Sincere people to reply.
by Truth Finder on Sep 19, 2007 01:38 AM Permalink
Ian Healy, Kirmani, Wasim Bari they were captain but they were not result oriented or good motivaters. In my cricket career, If wicket keeper become dominate he force bowlers to bowl as he want and as he think behind the stumps. Where as bowlers become captain, they think they can bowl well so they ignore other key bowlers that create all mess.
RE:Serious Question? Sincere people to reply.
by Sarath Chandra on Sep 19, 2007 01:43 AM Permalink
Finally, it is only results that should matter as motivations, body language, result-oriented etc are subjective and not objective measures. On that count, wicket-keepers seem to have done reasonably well whenever given a chance, in the 2000s. I don't have exact numbers, but these links can give you a general idea.
RE:Serious Question? Sincere people to reply.
by jsigns on Sep 19, 2007 01:34 AM Permalink
We have examples of captaincy by wktkeepers. May not be huge success but we have record of Healy, Stuart doing quite a good job.
RE:Tiger Pataudi is the youngest Indian Captain
by Gopal Krishna on Sep 19, 2007 02:19 AM Permalink
Not a bad idea to recall him. When gangool can make it to the team, why not pataudi? Food for thought!
Dhoni will try hard to kick this boy out.. He is the prince of the test series win in england and yet being promoted down the order in every 20/20match. Remember, he was also behind the last 20/20 win in SA against SA, last year. Explosive batting matters, but the team should bat all 20 overs and D KArthik is the glue that put's it all together.
RE:Bad news for Disnesh Karthik..
by Sarath Chandra on Sep 19, 2007 01:20 AM Permalink
More than kicking anybody out, Dhoni will try hardest to win matches. In fact, with Karthik in the team, Dhoni, if he performs well enough with the bat to hold his place as batsman alone (remember he is a reasonable bowler too), can share wicket-keeping duties. This would be of immense help to him given that he is full-time captain now.
Basically, he would want to win, more than anything else, Mate.
The decision is hugely unfair to the boy from Jharkhand. Yes, he has the captaincy material, but making him captain so soon and letting him face Pakistan and Australia is unfair to him. He needed time to grow up and mature. I think making Sachin or Sourav the captain would have made sense. Dhoni could have been groomed as the next man.
RE:Unfair to Dhoni
by Sarath Chandra on Sep 19, 2007 12:52 AM Permalink
Dhoni is 26, with over 20 tests and 80 one dayers under his belt. He is also a certainty in both sides.
Besides, to perform well against Australia we will need superlative individual performances. Our only consistent batsmen of recent times were Dravid, Ganguly and Tendulkar (both forms). Whatever Dravid's recent performances, it is hard to deny that he is the most likely guy to score big (150s and 200s) against Australia later this year. On field captaincy becomes a bit less important under such tough competetion where Australia is super-skilled. Nobody can deny Australia is winning based on skills and not on captaincy. Off the field, Dhoni will be well guided by so many experienced guys in the team with respect to team selection and toss decisions.
I think we are in the best possible position to deal with the season ahead, under the given circumstances. Let's back the team.
RE:Unfair to Dhoni
by Gopal Krishna on Sep 19, 2007 12:56 AM Permalink
"Off the field, Dhoni will be well guided by so many experienced guys in the team with respect to team selection and toss decisions. "
THat must be the biggest joke of the decade. Off the field, he will be guided by 10 janpath and only 10 janpath! He has to be the "Yes" man if he wants to stick to his gaddi!
RE:Unfair to Dhoni
by jsigns on Sep 19, 2007 01:26 AM Permalink
It is going to be the starting of downfall of Dhoni's cricketing career. Huge Huge mistake byt the most idiotic people involved in Indian cricket - The Board Selectors. They always prove that there is no cricketing brain with them. They just want to end a sudden problem somehow as quickly as possible.
i am sorry but first ever i cant stop laughing at serious discussion here.Its hilarious people talking about cricket knowledge.jahan star ka beta star,chara kha kar ghotala karney wala parwar digar aur cricket khel dikha key lutney waley bcci ko namaskar.
i always regret only one fact that 80 % of revenues come from india and our bowling attack is no comparison to bangladesh.
60% blame goes to BCCI and 40 to indian public for scrutiny of each an every small thing for bcci(provide an opportunity for scrutiny) couple of jerks who don't know anything about cricket cant interpret few word in press (niranjan shah)are running indian cricket.
An entrepreneur who passionate about cricket can mail me i am looking to put a proposal to bcci for overhauling of Indian cricket.Need a team to achieve this through venture capital
