Jhakas | Sanjay Jha
I remember reading sometime ago that watching the Australians on a cricket-field was like seeing a pornographic film. It was the same old stuff, terribly predictable, the standard sequences, the same old twists and yet having a familiar end. No surprises. Australia always won. After a point, it was a monotonous watch. MS Dhoni, India's new skipper in all forms of the game, is creating his own blue-film. No one in India ought to complain .
Dhoni's impact on Indian cricket is discernible fairly early. In fact, check out today's newspaper headlines. There is no screaming salvo, no chest-thumping Tarzanesque yell, no heroic splendors on display. The fact that despite another thumping victory against England in an abbreviated match at Bengaluru ( whereby India has already devastated the poor Poms into a mushy pulp with a 4-0 lead) it has not made it into extreme hyperbolic news (as is tradition) is heartening. Continue reading below
Hopefully, it has not to do with the late-hour finish. The best news today is that a smashing series sweep against England is no news. And this is the same Kevin Pietersen-led squad that had recently annihilated South Africa by a whopping 4-0 whitewash.
Dhoni has thus made an Indian triumph appear like a déjà vu. A remarkably regular event. A victory that does not seem surprising. No fireworks necessary.
What has stunned the cricketing world , more than anything else, is MSD's cool as cucumber aplomb, the perpetual smile, kinetic body-language, actively engaging the whole team, peppered by an occasional stone-faced expression , the only time you sense he is simmering within. But through it all, there are no tempestuous expressions, no vitriolic outbursts. He is a leader. He may be lucky, but does not luck favor the fearless brave? .
I was therefore extremely perturbed that some mole in a hole had surreptitiously leaked out the inside dope on a selection meeting , as conveniently as the treacherous bloke who had deliberately once divulged Greg Chappell's malicious e-mail, which was to irreparably damage Sourav Ganguly's career and reputation, till the valiant southpaw miraculously survived the planned assault. I see a strange disturbing connection. We just get so frightfully insecure and deadly jealous of those who are just doing what they are supposed to do. It is our habitual self-destructive propensities at work.
I would like the BCCI to do a complete investigation ( it will hardly take time, as the media contact itself will reveal the trouble-monger) and disclose to the Indian public who is this august official who has played dirty? I don't have to be an inborn genius to know that already there are certain diabolical forces hell-bent on keeping Dhoni's extraordinary rise under a forced ceiling. The attempted team sabotage by raising the RP Singh-Irfan Pathan issue is to tell Dhoni , that Big Brother is watching and willing to talk.
The easiest way to dethrone Dhoni will be to incapacitate him from within, where his own team-mates suspect his real motives, his inner preferences. If the leader is made to appear like a parochial lord, playing favorites, and ousting those not in his inner club, then rest assured, his decline is imminent.
It is a sinister message, and I would appreciate if the Indian media dug deep into this one and exposed the political culprits, who are constantly engaged as meek cowards in shadow-boxing. They deserve a resounding punch. K Srikanth is an ex-India captain, and now chief selector, and he owes India an explanation for this ludicrous spilling of the beans, not meant for live coverage.
Already there is rampant speculation that vested interests with commercial dealings with certain TV channels are playing truant. But we need to not just know the truth. We need to nail them. It is time the media fraternity stopped protecting the injudicious unethical excesses of their own brethren. Everyone becomes a loser.
Which is why MSD asked just the right question; who is this illustrious gentleman with a prostrate problem who has a penchant for frequent leaky peregrinations?
Till we answer that , keep watching MSD's blue-film. I want to also make a leak, friends; it is a 7-0 sweep. Trust me. Yawn!
