Dear Dhoni,
A student who has failed in his exam will always say “one
exam doesn’t define me”. If I fail in an exam, it doesn’t mean that I am not
fit to live. I will not let my parents and my friends criticize me for my
failure in one exam. These are the usual words uttered by a student (including
myself) who has failed. But you are different, we will criticize you, we
exaggerate your overseas failures (One exam failure), because only that defines
you.
We criticized Dravid/Ganguly/Laxman (Yes, we did), but today
we see millions of posts praising them. Once upon a time, we wanted them to
retire. We wanted them to be out of the team. Sehwag was continuously
criticized for his inconsistency; he was removed from the team but we have
forgotten that now. We praise him as the best opener. I remember a post about
"Coke bottle opener being a better opener than Sehwag". Today all
these people are nothing less than legends; they deserve it, despite their
failures many times. We see the whole picture, not the failures here and there.
We wanted Ganguly to be removed from captaincy when his
personal records were abysmal, but today we raise and shout "Dada
Dada", the best captain blah blah.
All said, are we being too critical on you? YES... Without a
doubt we "hate" you Dhoni.
We forgot we clapped for you when you scored 148s and 183s
with arrays of never before seen sixes, I have personally forgotten your
77*(56) against Pakistan. That was the time when not many Indians had a strike
rate of even above 90 against Pakistan. Everyone followed your hairstyle. You
were the poster boy. You won us the T20 WC. We were praising your cool-headed
captaincy at that young age. Sorry, we don’t remember that now or rather,
should I say, we don’t want to?
We forgot that you took the test team from Kumble and
reached the top. Test team No. 1. We don’t remember that, because we have never
seen that before. We forgot that we grew up being happy seeing India above
Pakistan in the test rankings. We forgot that we never even dreamed to be the
number one in tests. Yes, we had the same legends when we were young, but we
forgot that it was under your leadership that we grew to be the number one
team.
In the end, we remember one thing, your string of failures
in Australia, and England, but wait we have forgotten the 4-0 white-wash of
Australia at home. We still praise Clarke though he had lost on foreign soil
but we are being “logical” to shout against you.
We forgot that it was on the same England pitches that we
won the Champions trophy. We won both the WC's under you. We dedicated the WC
2011 to Sachin, but we don’t remember who scored that brilliant 91* in the finals.
When we were shaken after Sachin's dismissal in the WC finals, you stood there
showing a brilliant intent to take the cup and give it to Sachin. Sorry, even
after Star Sports showing it a million times we forget that innings.
We praise Bevan but somehow we forget to praise you as the
best finisher India has ever had. We praise Sanga for his keeping abilities but
somehow we forget to even mention your name.
We somehow forget we switched off our TV sets when 5 wickets were down
before you came to the team. We somehow forget that you scored impossible 15-16
runs of the final over n number of times. We somehow forget that you won us all
the major ICC trophies, but wait, we REMEMBER one thing; we remember that you
lost your overseas tours. We would continue to criticize you for your inability
to win your away tours, because winning matches in Australia and England are
more important than winning 2 WC’s and
Champions Trophy. Winning down under is more important for us than dedicating
the WC to Sachin. We wouldn’t have been this aggressive against you if you
hadn’t done any of the above, but won just 8 test matches in England &
Australia.
We will continue to “hate” you. I wouldn’t even Thank You,
instead I'll call you a ‘deserter’ for leaving the team. Get lost Dhoni, get lost from us, because we
don’t deserve a captain like you. We
will start showing our respect for you when Virat starts to fail, probably
after 4-5 years. We will put up posts and stats about you, we will salute you
then. We will get 1000’s of likes for you. Till then get lost.
First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.- M K Gandhi.
Dhoni,this quote is
for you.
By –
Dhoni admirer.
