1996, at the age of 11 when I started bleeding blue and became a fan of Cricket and especially the Indian Cricket. The first major tournament and the first match of life I watched on TV was Wills world cup 1996 match against Pakistan when Prasad showed the finger back to Sohel by taking his stumps, that was the moment my love doubled. Cousins, the reason behind my love for the cricket. Cousins taught me many rules of cricket, but from observation the first rule of the cricket that I learned on own is to switch off the TV set after Master Blaster gets out in the match. With only 1% of winning hope, you can ask for the final result.
The time when we had 98% confidence that India will surely win the match with ZB, Bangladesh, UAE, Kenya, and non-test playing teams. 40% winning confidence, 110% hope, and 150% nationalism for the match against Pak. 50% winning confidence for matches against NZ, Sri, Eng, WI. 25-30% winning confidence for the match against SA and only 2-3% winning confidence, 200% jealous, and infinite % of the blame on umpires, players for the match against Aussies.
The time, many Indians had anger and jealousy for the Aussie team and players. To witness Aussie defeat, I was watching all their matches against any opponent and I was celebrating Aussie wickets and opponent’s 4-6 like I am the coach or have bet crores of Rs. The Aussie team was so balanced that time it was difficult to see them defeated.
No need to talk about their bowling attack and ours. But one key player who always saved the Aussies sinking ship was Michael Bevan the best finisher of that time, whereas India had Ajay Jadeja as the finisher. But on the 22-yard pitch, Ajay Jadeja was a better hitter than the finisher. He was nowhere close to Michael Bevan’s batting average of 54. I remember, whenever Aussies in trouble Bevan single-handed won many matches for them with tail-enders at nonstriker end by scoring single-double only. So I was always wishing Michael Bevan should change nationality to India or must be injured in some accident (Yes, destructive but those were my thoughts. Nothing was more important than India’s win) or safer side he should retire from cricket.
But God and luck were always with Aussie. Nobody is interested to stop Bevan, these were my thoughts and I was not able to find contrivance of Bevan. On other hand Adam Gilchrist, a wicket-keeper batsman joined hands with Bevan to sail the boat. We had Nayan Mongia as a specialist wicketkeeper only and in the batting as soon as he marked the guard, the tail-enders were starting. 20+ runs at 80+ strike rate in ODI by him was a new Indian record every time by the wicketkeeper-batsman. His greatest achievement is he was on nonstriker end for one of the two consecutive storms hit by Master Blaster at Sharjah in 1998 and 152 in a test match against Aussie as an opener. But once he was out of the team in match-fixing, India kept searching for a good wicket-keeper with a fixed place in the team who will know how to stop the ball by bat if the time comes (wicket-keeper batsman was not our cup of tea, we were happy with good wicket-keeper also).1999-2004 Indian team gave chance to so many wicket-keeper, that the sponsors was printing “Wicket-Keeper” on a T-shirt instead of a name or number so that anybody can use it at last moment. Indian wicketkeepers always followed the rule of Gully cricket “Sabko batting Milani chahiye” so they never spent more time on the pitch. But I was lucky, that I witnessed 94 runs inning of Sameer Dighe in ODI final against WI in the year 2001 and the first century by Indian wicketkeeper on foreign soil in test cricket when Ajay Ratra scored 115 runs against WI in 2002, both the time I felt like I am in heaven and nothing left to see in life (sorry, if I missed any crucial inning played by Indian Wicketkeeper during that period). Parthiv Patel a 16-year old boy was somewhat exception for this, he was good in wicketkeeping and batting also.But India finally settled on The wall, he took the responsibility to stop the ball both sides of the wicket. Whereas for Aussie Gilly as an opener was spoiling the bowler’s career and with gloves, nobody was near to him (Sangkara mostly played with batsman gloves and Boucher was not consistent in batting). At that time Gilly was the best wicketkeeper-batsman in the world cricket. So what I was wishing to happen with Bevan now I was wishing the same for Gilly also.
Captainship was always a strong point of Aussie, Taylor-Waugh-Ponting-Clarke-Smith, continued the Aussie’s winning streak one after another, and why not? when you have Wicket-keeper-batsman Gilly and finisher Bevan in the team, victory is just a matter of time.
I was always praying that India must get a wicket-keeper batsman like Gilly, finisher like Bevan, and captain like Steve Waugh. These three players will make the Indian Cricket fan habitual of winning.
The Indian cricket team selectors were also searching for 3 key players, a good finisher, a good wicket-keeper batsman, and a good captain. 1999 Dada as a captain and Yuvi on number four changed the habit of Indian Fans a little bit but the team was still waiting for a finisher and at least avg wicket-keeper batsman but secretly fans heart’s was saying “Yeh dil mange more”
आंधळा मागतो एक डोळा देव देतो दोन डोळे (The blind begs one eye God gives two eyes) to prove this, MSD debuted for India against Bangladesh. But debut was heartbreaking for MSD and Indian fans who were waiting for wicketkeeper-batsman.MSD scored only 19 runs in his first 3 matches and frankly, I started thinking about Parthiv Patel’s come back in the team. But something great was written in the Indian cricket’s future. And then came the match against Pak, when Dhoni spoiled the Pak bowling attack by scoring 148 of 123. But experts were found many issues in his batting technique or wicket keeping. But for Indian fans and me, as far as player performa for the team and the team keeps winning, the technique doesn’t matter at all. (Contribution of the good technique players like Manjerkar, Kambali is always a point of discussion). Dhoni with his hitting ability and wicket keeping first fixed his spot in the team. Slowly he changed his batting style for playing the role of match-winner and finisher. Once he wore the captain’s cap then everything thing changed for Indian cricket.
“Fortune favors the Brave” but over the years one brave, risk-taker, cool minded man changed the fortune of Indian cricket with his great ability to finish the match, fastest man between the wickets, quickest and best man behind the wickets, ready to mold his batting style as per the situation in at any batting order, and most importantly keeping the team bonded and leading it from the front with a cool mind and trapping the opponents with a shocking surprise.
The man who believes that the match is not over till the last ball is bowled, a man who kept us stick to the chair after Master Blaster is out, a man who loves to finish the match with sixes, a man who can hit sixer on any ball with his power, a man who knew cricket better, a man who confidently took the risk of batting at number 5 in place of in form Yuvi in 2011 world cup final and made the history, a young and inexperienced captain, who won the 2007 twenty-twenty world cup by giving ball in Joginder’s hand, when Bhajji refuse to bowl last over, a man with his ability to read the mind and game of players and plan accordingly. Who believed in giving the chance, believed in the ability of the players, believed young players, and gave enough chances to perform. Man with the most number of stumping in the world, 195 which 40% more than the player on the second number 139, shows how quick he was behind the stumps also.
Who love, like, or hate him? what was his attitude for any player of the team? what he did with old players? how was he as a person? when he should have retired? all these question don’t matter to an Indian cricket fan. The only thing that matter most is, he won the ICC world cup 2011, 2007 ICC 20-20 world, made Indian team number 1 in ICC test ranking, won the ICC champions trophy, won the Commonwealth bank series against Aussie in Australia in best of 3 final. All this happened in the captainship of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the worlds the best finisher, wicket-keeper-batsman, and captain cool, a man who made Indian Cricket fan habitual of winning, a man who changed the winning confidence against Aussie from 3% to 80%.
The Man who always finished the match in style finally hanged his gloves in un-style.
But, something is always positive in bad thing also. So one positive thing with MSD’s retirement is now BCCI has two best option as a replacement of Ravi Shastri, first one is of course The Wall, the way he shaped the youth cricket team he doesn’t need to prove anything else and the second man is, who knows how to win the matches with old and lost horses also, MSD. In IPL for CSK, he always buy old, relieved by other teams and underperforming players (Watson, Badrinath, Macullum, Morris, Piyush Chawla, Mohit Sharma, Balaji, Rayudu, Jadhav, Tahir, Bhajji, Dwayne Smith, Haydon, Albie Morkel are few examples). But immediately after wearing the yellow t-shirt of CSK and MSD leading them, God knows what energy and form they get and they perform exceptionally well and best of their career.
“उम्मीद पे दुनिया कायम है” (The world is full of hope) Let’s hope and wish soon we will see MSD in a new role, till then we can enjoy his performance in IPL.
Last but not least lines for captain, player and his play
Pal do pal ke shayar ki kya khub thi wo shayari, jo amar huyi,
Pal do pal hi teri kahani thi,lekin yaad hai abhi bhi wo junge jo tune hai khub ladhi,
Pal do pal hi teri hasti thi, jo har pal logo ke dil me abhi bhi hai basati,
Pal do pal hi teri javani thi,wo javani hi teri ab javano ko diwana hai karati…………….
Pal do pal ki ye anmol kahani, jisaka nam tha Mahendrasingh Dhoni.
Chetan Nikam 