Stop mocking the media, Dhoni. The joke's on you now
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is at it again. Pushed to a corner by a reporter on Thursday (March 31), as he should be, for his inexplicable captaincy in the World T20 semi-final against the West Indies, Mahi decided to fight back. When asked uncomfortable questions by the media these days, Dhoni apparently thinks attack is the best form of defence.
And it (March 31) was no different on Thursday, when he tore into Australian journalist Samuel Ferris for asking about his retirement. No remorse for his strange (an understatement) captaincy and the bloopers of his teammates that cost India the match, but undue belligerence instead. Shocking!
Here is what happended at the press conference after India crashed out of the World T20 having offered Andre Russell and company the match on a platter:
"Do you want to continue playing on after this tournament," asked the journalist. Dhoni, clearly, started to fume.
"Sorry?" said the Indian skipper, pretending to not comprehend the question, at first. But when it was repeated, he wanted to teach the interviewer a lesson. He had given a rough, angry reply when asked an uncomfortable question the last time. Why not mock his interviewer this time around, and shame him publicly?
A sinister smile flitted across his face. "Come here, let's have some fun. Come here," said Dhoni, gesturing towards the journalist. Ferris was taken aback.
"Come. come, come, seriously. Yeah yeah, come," Dhoni insisted, pulling a chair for Ferris to sit. There were bouts of laughter across the hall.
A sheepish-looking Ferris walked up to the dais and sat beside Dhoni, who disdainfully put his arm around Ferris' shoulder, and asked: "You want me to retire?"
"No... I was just asking you," Ferris replied.
"Okay, I was hoping it was an Indian media guy, because you know... because I can't really say if you have a brother or a son who can play for India, who is a wicket-keeper."
Ferris: "True."
Dhoni: "Do you think I am unfit, looking at me running?"
Ferris: "No, very fast."
Dhoni: "You think I can survive till the 2019 World Cup?"
Ferris thought for a while. Perhaps he was not convinced, but given how he was being shamed, said, "Um, yes, sure."
Dhoni patted the journalist on the back and declared, again to bouts of laughter, "Then you have answered the question."
"Thank you, sir," said Ferris and left, but perhaps unnerved by the humiliation that he had had to go through, forgot to take his microphone with him.
"Ah, you are forgetting something," Dhoni called back.
Then he addressed the gathering. "No, I wish it was an Indian media guy, because I would have asked, you know, if he has a son that is old enough, and a wicket-keeper to play. He would have said no. Then I would have said, okay, may be a brother who can play, and who is a wicket-keeper, but..."
"You fired the wrong ammunition at the wrong time," Dhoni rubbed it in, pointing towards the journalist.
Very childish behaviour by the Indian captain.
A brazen attack on the media by Dhoni again, when he should be ashamed of India's and his own performance in the World T20 semi-final. This was Dhoni's second spat with the media during the tournament. The first was when a journalist asked if Dhoni was happy with the team's performance against Bangladesh. Readers would remember that India had just about won against Bangladesh by a solitary run.
Dhoni felt affronted that someone had the "temerity" to make him accountable. Didn't the team win? Wasn't that enough?
No, sir, let me tell you, it is NOT enough. Had Dhoni been more humble and more open to criticism, he perhaps would have taken steps to plug in the many gaps that emerged in the team's performance during the group phase.
But he cared not to, and would brook no criticism. Why should he have, when Virat Kohli was saving him time and again? On Thursday also he may have thought Kohli would save him the blushes and he would be let off by the media. And Kohli, as usual, put in a stellar show, scoring 89 off 47 balls, even taking the wicket of the dangerous-looking Johnson Charles. But Dhoni needs to tell us: How long does he plan to hide behind Kohli?
India got two wickets on deliveries which turned out to be no balls. You can't expect to win a match in a world event against a world class side when you do that. After all, West Indies is no Bangladesh that will let you off the hook. You also don't expect to win with such awful captaincy, which saw a non-regular bowler like Kohli sending down the last over, in such a pressure match with the team's bowler Ravichandran Ashwin cooling his heels, having given only two overs. A very cavalier attitude, playing with the feelings of the fans.
Dhoni's captaincy was as juvenile as his conduct at the press conference. He can perhaps stay on till the 2019 World Cup. And no, he is not unfit. He need not retire, if he doesn't wish to. But Dhoni, the captain, is becoming a huge liability to the side.
Questions on his retirement have seen him bristling with rage lately, and it was not the first occasion when he has had a face-off with the media on this issue.
Also Dhoni regretting the fact that his interviewer was not an "Indian media guy" shows how insecure he feels facing the country's media.
As much as we may want to hate Pakistan, at least Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi had the decency to apologise to the nation after the World T20 failure. And look at his Indian counterpart. A cocky counter-attack when there is every reason for him to hang his head in shame.
Yes, hang your head in shame, Dhoni, because on Thursday, you and your team didn't make the nation proud.