DHONI, WE HATE YOU

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.