Time to pack up?

Money corrupts. Too much money corrupts absolutely. This is more often than not true in the case of Indian cricketers. There can be no better example than the latest pinup boy of Indian cricket, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. These days he is more in the news for his love life and hair style than his cricket. It has gone rather unnoticed in the media that runs have dried up off his bat ever since the historic Twenty20 victory under his captaincy. That was a season ago. It's ironic that a typically predatory media waiting like a pack of hungry wolves to make or break celebrities has turned coy over his prolonged slump in form. Or should it be surprising at all? The media feeds on celebrity frenzy and in turn, needs this heady concoction of news, views, and juice to keep the sweet music of competition flowing. You are tuned out the moment the music turns bitter, i.e. when the reader's appetite for celeb news is dried out or timed out. So we keep the thing going - and going, till the inevitable happens. It becomes too obvious to kill the story, the celebrity falls off the map, and the media eventually, goes for the kill, preening that they did it first.

Maybe that's why Dhoni still rules the front pages and the advertising sections. Maybe the reader's need for Dhoni is more than the media's need to gun for him right now. After all, one cannot dispute the fact that the media is treating Dhoni like its favorite son, and with kid gloves. Right from the time after the Twenty20 final, we have seen Dhoni's bravado and pyrotechnics only in the commercials. On the odd occasion when he has managed to score 40-50 odd runs, he has clearly looked uncomfortable and unconvincing. The dashing Dhoni has turned more Dravidian, plodding and poking for runs, rather than plundering them as is his wont.
There is life after cricket, after Dhoni. The bench strength to replace Dhoni - why not? - is quite impressive. There is Dinesh Karthik and then the vastly improved Parthiv Patel. Both are handy with the bat, and arguably, have better hands behind the wicket than Dhoni. More importantly, they have opened in the Ranji matches and so can easily fit into the opening slot, in case of need, which is not the case with Dhoni. This will add more meat to the Indian batting order, and from the team balance point of view, it would make more sense to have Karthik or Patel in and keep Dhoni out.

The question arises? Will this be too harsh on Dhoni? Well, did we think so when we asked for Sachin's head every second match he failed to score? When VVS Laxman fails in a single match, questions are raised about his selection! The answer therefore to the question whether we are being too harsh on Dhoni, should be: Are we being too soft on him?