An Imaginary Interview with Mahendra Singh Dhoni ~ 10 Questions : 10 Answers

This is a completely imaginary work, which I penned a couple of weeks back. Since the time I became a Dhoni follower, I personally had to face many questions from his critics, which I answered with pleasure. I have had 'n' number of debates, discussions and hot moots, face to face as well as on the online platforms, almost of all of which were healthy.

Here, when I indite this, I presume myself to be in the interviewer's seat and I would be asking all the questions, which I had to face from my fellow-critics till date. And sitting opposite to me, I presume to be a virtual Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who would be answering these questions, like the way you wanted him to answer.

Let our creative juices flow in visualizing such a scenario and virtually relish the interview :)

The interview starts !

Q: You’ve been one of the most successful captains ever in the game. While some glorify you as a great captain, some give you the label of just being the captain of a great Indian team. Some say Indian team rose to glory because of a great MSD but others say MSD rose to glory because of a great Indian team. What’s your say on this?

A: Public can never be homogenous. Mixture of people implies mixture of opinions. All cannot think the same way. Therefore, differences of opinions are prone to occur. To me, both the schools of thinking are not conflicting. They are just complementary. Cricket is not like lawn tennis! Cricket is a team game. A single person cannot play for all the eleven players of a team. Match-winners evolve for just one game. A single person cannot bring glory to the team unless he is equally complemented by the others in the team. I am proud enough to say that I have got a great team. I’m lucky enough to be the captain of a team with each player having an outstanding potential. So, both the statements are partially true and inter-dependent.

Q: I think you need a bit more clarification on the question. Let us take for example, when Sourav Ganguly was the Indian captain, Indian cricket was in shatters. Neither did we have foundation, nor pillars. He started from the first step of building up a team. There was only Sachin and a couple of other in form batsman. Statistics say cricketers like Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag etc evolved under Ganguly. So when you became the captain, you had to start only from where Ganguly left. You had finished products in your side. Didn’t that make your job a lot easier?

A:  Ganguly is indeed a great captain. There’s no denying the fact that many of our players evolved during his reign as a captain. But I did not start from where Ganguly left it. If my memory and the stats is right, I started from where Rahul Dravid left. I started from where Anil Kumble left. My first assignment as a captain was the inaugural ICC Twenty 20 World Cup back in 2007. If I remember right, it was also a time where Indian cricket was in complete turmoil. We had performed pretty poorly at the 50-over format World Cup in West Indies the same year, and when it came to the Twenty 20 World Cup, I lead a team without Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman and many more big names. Ours was a much inexperienced squad with some new names like Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan etc. Robin Uthappa, Sreesanth, Joginder Sharma etc were all young bloods. Just like how Bhajji, Yuvi and Viru evolved during Ganguly’s time, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin evolved during this period. Every captain can give you his list of players like this. Indian cricket under myself and Ganguly are two entirely different phenomena which cannot be compared. It is tough to make comparisons. We only see the negative side of everything. Indian cricket had a good time under Ganguly. If you believe Indian cricket is having a good time under me, let us all be happy about it.

Q: Analysts and cricket experts point out that Indian cricket has seen the best and the worst form in recent times. We won the World Cup last year and the same team India lost 8 overseas test matches consecutively. Your comments?

A: It is a law of nature that a good thing has to be followed by a bad thing which in turn, gets followed by a good thing and so on. If there is a high, there ought to be a low. Please don’t think that I am holding science as an excuse to our poor performance in Test matches, but I was reasoning out some facts. Bad times will come. At the end of the day, it is all about overcoming the bad times. That is when you stand the test of time. The conditions were tough for us in England and Australia. We had players who were totally unaccustomed to the conditions there. At the same time, we had legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman who had a lifetime experience playing abroad. Unfortunately, all of us failed equally which meant there was something wrong. Taking nothing away from the opposition, we still could have played our game better. There were a lot of areas where things did not go upto the level of our expectations.  Cricket is an interesting game. Some things may seem ironic. But then, where is the beauty of the game without these little ironies and surprises?

Q: Isn’t the main reason behind the team’s failure, especially that of the batting department, the above-the-limit exposure to the Twenty 20 format? Aren’t the players after being involved in so many of the shorter-version games, especially in the Indian Premier League, finding it tough to adapt to the change in formats? We saw a lot of batsmen getting out due to lack of impatience, attempting risky shots. Do you support this argument? Don’t you think the proportion of each format in the International schedule of each player change?

A: We indeed have played a lot of twenty-twenty games, especially in the IPL. But I do not know how much of blame is to be put on the IPL and other T20 tournaments for our failure. VVS Laxman is someone who was not involved in any twenty20 game. At the same time, the only batsman who made merry was the young Virat Kohli who even scored a very good century in Australia is someone who has played more number of twenty 20 games than anybody else. So, I do not think playing twenty -twenty game has a deep impact on other formats. The main reason for our failure, when I word it, is the unfamiliar circumstances. We could see how difficult Indian batsmen get to the short-pitched deliveries. Probably the next time we go there, we might perform better. To substantiate my views, you can take the India-England series we played here in India just after our overseas series. What we suffered in their soil, they suffered here in our soil. So, it is up to adapting to the situations. It is a common phenomenon in the cricketing arena.

Q: How far has the new generation Indian cricket gone, with the likes of Dravid and Laxman retiring and Sachin to retire soon?

A: Dravid and Laxman were playing only in the Test format in the last few years. If you are asking about the Test format, we are satisfied with the current state of affairs as of now. Laxman’s retirement announcement came just before the beginning of the New Zealand series. There could not have been a greater blow for the team than this. But Pujara was called as a last minute replacement and he scored a match-winning century in the first test match. We could also whitewash the series. Look, one thing which every cricket follower needs to understand is that, cricket will move on regardless of anything.  There was an under 19 Virat Kohli and now, we have an Unmukht Chand. Unmukt replaces a 2008 Virat Kohli and Virat has now replaced a 2008 Rahul Dravid. I am not comparing Virat with Rahul. It is still early to make comparisons. But still, replacements will come. After all, India is a country with n number of cricketers. By saying this, I am also sure, that in near future, even Mahendra Singh Dhoni will find a replacement, hopefully, a better replacement. Indian cricket followers have this common blind belief that Indian cricket will find its end when the big ones retire. It is a wrong conviction. They think so because, over the years, they have been so used to seeing Indian elevens with the big ones. This has made them incapable to think of a team without the senior players. But the strange truth is, cricket will move on, in the same fashion, even after their time. It will be the same even after my time, even after Kohli’s time.

Q: The Twenty-20 World cup is approaching. Subcontinent conditions and team’s current form – how much of hope can be assigned on the team’s shoulders?

A: Yes, we do have a good chance of winning the cup, but the competition is tough. Talented youngsters are coming up in each and every team. You cannot rule out even Afghanistan’s team. Twenty 20 is such a game. But going into the tournament with current form, yes, we do have a strong chance of playing well. Personally, I give more weightage to performance than results. Win or loss, at the end of the day, we have to make sure that we gave our hundred percent.

Q: Another curious aspect of this World Cup is the return of Yuvraj Singh. How do you see that, making a comeback in a tournament as big as the World Cup?

A: Well, Yuvi is a fighter. He comes back to the side, which means he has fought and won. Fighting a dangerous disease needs strong will and determination. We all know about him. He has a never say die attitude. World cup or a small series, he knows what it is all about and he won’t happier to return at any other point of time. From the team’s point of view, this is the time when we need Yuvi the most. Personally, everybody is ecstatic about his return. He is a great asset not only on the field, but off the field too. He gives a better shape to the entire group. Also, we have another Singh tiger returning in Bhajji. It is a delight to have him back at this stage.

Q: You have got the tag of an elegant gentleman. You are a missing face in those usual late night parties. You keep things to the basic level. You are someone who got married quickly, quick when compared to others. You’re a family man. Are these the main reason you stay away from many rumors? Is this the kind of lifestyle the younger generation, especially the cricketers have to adopt?

A: Everybody has their own likes and dislikes. I am such because I like to be so. You say I have got the tag of an elegant gentleman. I am happy about it. It shows that whatever I have done, the things you mentioned, have not gone the wrong way. But it does not entail that others should follow it. They can live their lives the way they want. Attending late night parties, hanging out with friends – all this can be done, nothing wrong about it as long as you make sure you give your best, your hundred percent to the main thing you do, that is, your game called cricket. When it comes to staying away from rumors, yes, they might be helping you in some way. The less you are involved in a risk, the less dangerous things get. But in this modern world, there are even people who love to be rumors. So, it is a strange world and one has to choose the lifestyle one wants to. This is something to be followed off the field. On field, Dhoni is Dhoni, Viru is Viru, Yuvi is Yuvi, Zaheer is Zaheer.

Q: You are someone who does things differently. In the twenty over world cup finals, you gave the last over to Joginder Sharma. In the fifty over world cup final, you replaced an in-form Ashwin with an out of form Sreesanth. But everything has worked out quite well for you. There’s a quote saying winners do not do different things, they do things differently. You have yourself quoted this on the same context in a popular advertisement. What makes you take these decisions? Intelligence? Luck? Courage? Or is it a mixture of everything? If I give the tag ‘lucky’ to you, how will you take it? We have seen matches where the top order batsmen build up the innings during a chase and then finally you come and finish it off. You’ve got the luck to build pillars many a times on the basement someone else has built. Your thoughts on this?

A: Interesting question. If you consider just coming in and finishing off the match something that great, then I would accept that I am lucky because I know I have done it on an n number of occasions. But the area where I tend to disagree is the same. I do not think finishing off a match is all that great. If it was some other player batting in place of me, the same thing would have happen. The credit always goes to the man who has built the basement, not the pillar. The case of top order batsmen doing the job and me taking the credit is interesting. It is interesting because, the men who in your terms have built the basement could have built the pillars too. But they could not. They build the basements and then they get out. Unless a batsman gets out, the next batsman cannot walk in. Thus, I get to walk in and then it becomes my job to steer the team home. 

Doing things differently – is something winners do. But the real fun comes when you analyze some situations carefully. You quoted Joginder Sharma and Sreesanth because at both instances, my decisions have not done any harm. The team has won both the matches. But if the same match was lost by an extra no-ball or something, this question would not have even arisen. We have this behaviour called selective absorption. I can point out many similar games where I have gone with a little different approach which ultimately never worked out. Both happen, success and failure both come at their own nice intervals. Some people notice something; others may notice the opposite of it. So, it is ultimately up to you to judge your successes and failures.

Q: Any final words to your fans, especially going into the world cup?

A: Yes. They are the backbone for us. The crowd support is the real driving force for a team. It is quite evident when we play home matches. Even when we played in countries like England and South Africa, the Indian supporters residing there, came to the ground to watch the match, creating a home-like atmosphere for us. All I have to tell everyone of them is, to keep supporting us. Not just supporting, keep motivating, criticizing, monitoring and appreciating whenever whatever is needed to be done. We, not just in the upcoming world cup, but also in all future aspects, make a vow to try and give our hundred percent so that regardless of the result, we can hold our heads high!

~ Interview Ends - Suggestions are welcome !