What's ailing Dhoni ?

I usually don't like to talk about cricket or to a much lesser extent write about it.I prefer to watch (and will watch anything) and play .So when I wanted to write this ,it is simply because the modern media sucks at writing about cricket.One of the many reasons I have stopped reading about it ,except for the stats based articles and at times the few intelligent ones remaining like the Bhogles and the Chappels is that it is written by fools who have never been in a professional sports environment.

The media writes a lot of gibberish on cricket and all of these fit the traditional arm chair critics.Not one article goes into the minds of a person and they wont because they have never played the game.You dont know what it is to perform professionally day after day.

"So Why has Dhoni failed" and I have probably the best answer for it.It is an answer I formulated about 6 years back and the question then was "Why is Dhoni so successful?"The answer for both is the same.

Dhoni by birth was not a cricket fanatic,he was more passionate about football and took to cricket by chance.Somewhat similar to Saurav Ganguly.When he did start doing well,it was because to him cricket was a job ,and as any employee in a company you want to start doing justice to the job.He did not care about whether he had the passion for it ,or not .To him it was a 9 to 5 job and he did it so well.This is the biggest difference between Dhoni and all the other failed captains before him ,the sachins the dravids etc.To them it was an "oh my god what If I failed this is my life",to Dhoni it was not.

His mind was clear,he always knew if he sucked at it ,he will give it up .
Now you may ask how would you play a game if you didn't like it.Well much the same way as one would work even if he did not like it...Ambrose the former West Indian fast bowler has publicly stated he hated cricket ,but he was so good at it only because to him it was a job and nothing would please his Mom more than doing his job correctly.He says that after his last ball in cricket,he has never ever watched cricket again.You see where I am going! To some people cricket is just that,A job! (and in modern day sports, it is just a rarity because the game is so professional).

This is the same reason that espouses Dhoni's don't care attitude and coolness. I put in a bug in my code today ,I don't sit and weep for it,I come back and fix it whenever it surfaces.You see that is the difference between passion and doing it for the job's sake.if you had passion you would ensure the bug does not happen ,but if you do it as a job there will be chinks in it and eventually the chinks arise because of your don't care attitude.

The thing that has happened today is that Dhoni has just lost his love for the game.He does it day after day just like we do because of some sort of loyalty.We know our company has treated us well,so even though we hate it ,we keep chugging along.Dhoni has the same attitude.And when that attitude surfaces it is bad for both company and the employee .In this case bad for both Dhoni and India.

All his recent conferences where he talks about retiring from one format ,points to the exact reasoning above.It may not be a bad thing for him to do,in fact I would encourage him to take a break from test cricket,maybe he will want to do it again,but mostly he wont and if he does not want to,so be it.Let him play the format he at least likes and quit the rest.

The hiding that India is currently receiving is actually good ,this will help them build a stronger and better base for the future.And in reality it does not matter as every thing in sport like life is a cycle.You will have good days and you will have bad days.


Dhoni has to take this decision and I fancy him taking this decision by the end of the year.You heard it here first.