Dhoni Criticism

[Arjun]

Originally Posted by Smith

he has rightfully apologised to the fans.

The media still asks, is an apology enough?

Everyone seems to blame the captain for the debacle. Not a word against coach Gary Kirsten, who is drifting away from the team, given how often he's away from them and what he said after the Lahore incident.

[Smith]

Originally Posted by Arjun

The media still asks, is an apology enough?

Everyone seems to blame the captain for the debacle. Not a word against coach Gary Kirsten, who is drifting away from the team, given how often he's away from them and what he said after the Lahore incident.

Then, what else media expect? Dhoni to step down? To go to Himalayas?

As for Gary, nobody took him to the heights when India was winning test series against NZ and Australia. Or ODI series against England, Australia, SL etc. Gosh, just 2 T20 matches lost in a row and people are questioning the places of Dhoni and Kirsten???

[BoyBrumby]

He made some elementary captiancy errors yesterday, Jadeja being promoted and not bowling out RP & Zaheer the most obvious ones. However it wasn't Dhoni who gave away five wides off the penultimate ball or who played the hook shot like a prep school first year afflicted with some kind of palsy. What's the quote; failure is an orphan but success has a thousand fathers?

Dhoni & Yousuf very nearly won the thing for India despite everything.

[social]

Originally Posted by BoyBrumby

He made some elementary captiancy errors yesterday, Jadeja being promoted and not bowling out RP & Zaheer the most obvious ones. However it wasn't Dhoni who gave away five wides off the penultimate ball or who played the hook shot like a prep school first year afflicted with some kind of palsy. What's the quote; failure is an orphan but success has a thousand fathers?

Dhoni & Yousuf very nearly won the thing for India despite everything.

Yup, wasnt the captaincy or his batting that lost it

[Arjun]

Originally Posted by Smith

Then, what else media expect? Dhoni to step down? To go to Himalayas?

As for Gary, nobody took him to the heights when India was winning test series against NZ and Australia. Or ODI series against England, Australia, SL etc. Gosh, just 2 T20 matches lost in a row and people are questioning the places of Dhoni and Kirsten???

I don't know. There is so little T20I cricket played, they will ask for anything. At times, I disagree with everything that some sections of the media (notably what DNA India, a Mumbai daily, suggested) say, but I find them ignorant. The British media can trash their own team as much as they want, as they don't have much of a fan following. In this country, there is a nationwide passion for the game, so this kind of criticism will result in a war between media and fans, as can be seen in forums and letters to the media- fans are extremely derisive about the media at times.

Things were different then. Gary seems to feel unsafe with the Indian team as can be noticed in that press statement, which was after the Lahore incident, and the World T20 followed. When the coaching job as so much pressure and the coach still feels a little insecure, there may be a problem around the corner.

[Burgey]

Originally Posted by honestbharani

He is a good captain.. He always was and he still is.


But he is a defensive captain... This tournament has been his worst by quite a long way in terms of captaincy and just like batsmen or bowlers or fielders making mistakes, he has made a few (more than a few, perhaps) as the captain. Hopefully he will learn from this and get better.


But I repeat this again. He is and seems he always will be a defensive captain. Inspite of all the talent India have got, I just dont see us being #1 for any real length of time with that attitude from the captain. But then again, given the number of changes to the way the game is being played these days, it might just be good for India to have a defensive minded guy as the captain.


I think Duffer hit the nail on the head. He is paid heaps, he is praised heaps when doing well, often undeservingly and the flip side is when he doesn't do well, he is gonna get such stuff his way. As long as it is only headlines and print instead of hurting his house etc.., he has just got to bear it. Even I wish we had more balanced media but this is the way it is and you gotta learn to take it.

The true measure of Dhoni's captaincy will come when he's in a test and the opposition is 2-350 or 400, not in a T20 when things get away so quickly and a captain has to react in a ridiculous time frame or risk penalty.

I think they're being too harsh on him for this outcome.

I do, however, think a negative captain can cause a team not to become number one, but only in circumstances where the race is a close one and a different attitude to captaincy is the difference between, say drawing test or pushing for wins, and thus making a difference in rankings etc.

[Uppercut]

Originally Posted by social

Dhoni is a terribly defensive captain (watch for the next time a batsman hits a few 4s and I guarantee he'll send the fieldsmen to all parts) but he wont stop India from becoming no. 1 - retirements and a lack of quality will

I think he's quite balanced myself. Particularly in tests, he'll not do the Ricky Ponting and spread the field and hope for the best when the batsman is on 20. He'll always have a new plan to get them out.

The famous 8-1 field is the great example people use, but in context the batsmen were well and truly on top of India before he tried that. And even at that, it was in a match that India only needed to tie. Even when he tried it in the game against New Zealand, he seemed to have a plan of sorts, and when it didn't come off he reverted to a new one the next morning and almost won the game by bringing on Tendulkar.

[Uppercut]

Originally Posted by Arjun

The media still asks, is an apology enough?

An apology is too much if you ask me. Why should he apologise to the fans? What does he owe them? He's just a cricketer. Sometimes you're just not good enough.

[Smith]

Originally Posted by BoyBrumby

He made some elementary captiancy errors yesterday, Jadeja being promoted and not bowling out RP & Zaheer the most obvious ones. However it wasn't Dhoni who gave away five wides off the penultimate ball or who played the hook shot like a prep school first year afflicted with some kind of palsy. What's the quote; failure is an orphan but success has a thousand fathers?

Dhoni & Yousuf very nearly won the thing for India despite everything.

A bit harsh on those wides as they were atleast 2 feet outside leg stump fired in at 100 kmph. Actually it went straight to short fine leg who indeed had slow clumsy legs which let in that for a boundary.

[Uppercut]

Originally Posted by social

Yup, wasnt the captaincy or his batting that lost it

Completely agree. His sub-standard keeping to spinners was much more decisive than either.

[Arjun]

Originally Posted by BoyBrumby

He made some elementary captiancy errors yesterday, Jadeja being promoted and not bowling out RP & Zaheer the most obvious ones. However it wasn't Dhoni who gave away five wides off the penultimate ball or who played the hook shot like a prep school first year afflicted with some kind of palsy. What's the quote; failure is an orphan but success has a thousand fathers?

Dhoni & Yousuf very nearly won the thing for India despite everything.

There was so much going wrong in plans=

• Porous field settings that can help Owais Shah take two runs in the infield.
• Dropping one of your best T20 players (first RP, then Irfan) for all the matches.
• Casting T20 misfits and rank outsiders in key roles.
• Not keeping enough catching fielders in the opening overs.
• Keeping Yuvraj, Yusuf and himself way down.
• Opening with Rohit Sharma.
• Keeping Yusuf Pathan out of action largely.
• Repeatedly trying to override a bowler's demand in field placings

Apart from that, he seems to have become a club captain, with some players favoured more than the rest, in addition to his rather defensive mindset. He can learn a lot from Dravid's term as captain, who could work with anyone and take extreme risks.

[Arjun]

Originally Posted by Uppercut

An apology is too much if you ask me. Why should he apologise to the fans? What does he owe them? He's just a cricketer. Sometimes you're just not good enough.

I don't think the fans hate Dhoni or any player as much as the rude media motormouths.

[Arjun]

Originally Posted by Uppercut

Completely agree. His sub-standard keeping to spinners was much more decisive than either.

All the wicketkeeper-batsmen were substandard, for a long time.

[ret]

Dhoni made a few mistakes but as long as he learns from the experience it's fine .... even if Ind had won against Eng, I don't think we would have made it to the final with the kind of cricket we were playing i.e. lackluster

What disappointed me was Dhoni's batting in the game against Eng. I would have preferred if we had been bundled out of 130 in trying to play big shots and going for a win in a KO game. The score card says we lost by 3 runs but anyone who watched the game will tell you that Ind only managed to reduce the margin of loss and never looked like pressing the button for a win

They kept taking singles, didn't do anything to force bowlers to change their length and so on. In the last over, with like 18 runs needed, Dhoni should have asked Yusuf to take charge rather than making him run a single and then giving the strike back to him again

It was disappointing stuff but hopefully the players would pick their games up!

[honestbharani]

Originally Posted by Smith

100% agreement with this. The 8-1 field alone is proof of his defensive mindset, but don't get me wrong, defensive captaincy is sometimes better than aggressive ott captaincy. He got a couple of strategies wrong in this tournament and he has rightfully apologised to the fans. While he gets things done, people call it luck, and when it does not work, people call him ****.

Double standards.

I am not sure whom you are referring to, but I have always maintained and I did so in my post here, that he is a defensive captain and that being a defensive captain is not necessarily a bad thing.


But I do think to stay on as the best side in the world, you can't do that with a defensive frame of mind, which is what Dhoni brings to the table. I see INdia beating other sides often and BECOMING contenders and even being the number 1 side, but staying on at the top... I just don't see that happening with his current style of captaincy. Again I say this: he is a good captain, I just don't think he is the one who is going to keep us as #1 in the world, even if he does make us the #1 team, at least for a series or two.