Thursday 11 April 2019

Just because it's MS Dhoni, it ain't right !



    It was the return leg of  Rajasthan Royals Vs Chennai Super Kings at Jaipur yesterday. Chennai was chasing 152 and was rocked by four quick wickets. Ambati Rayudu and Dhoni steadied the ship before cruising towards the target.

    In the last over, Chennai needed 18 with Jadeja and Dhoni at the crease. Three balls later it came down to 8 off 3 balls. On the fourth ball, Ben Stokes bowled a waist-high full toss which was initially called a no-ball by the straight umpire Ulhas Gandhe only to be denied by square leg umpire Bruce Oxenford.

    The alarm went off at the ground and everyone saw Ulhas signaling No ball. This caused mayhem as Jadeja was disappointed and was having a conversation with the umpires. Seeing all this happening on the field, Dhoni who got out the previous ball was walked in furiously and had a heated conversation with both the umpires pointing out to his hand to Ulhas Gandhe. It went on for a couple of minutes as Rajasthan players gathered in as well. The no-ball wasn't called in the end and the match went on. Mitch Santner hit a six off the last ball and won it for CSK.

       MS Dhoni furiously having a conversation with the umpires.
                                                                       (Image source: iplt20.com)

   MS Dhoni who got out in the third ball had no business and needn't had to walk-in for an umpiring error or confusion. There were two batsmen at the crease and umpires had to take a call irrespective of what it is. Dhoni needn't had to walk-in animatedly and talk furiously to the umpires. He could have waited and said or reacted the way he wanted after the match got over or in the post-match presentations.


MS Dhoni walks on to the field when no-ball was denied. (Image source: iplt20.com)


   But what happened at the presentation is even more amusing. The presenter didn't ask a word about the conversation or the no-ball controversy to Dhoni. Even when MS asked whether he is asking about what happened with the umpires the presenter politely denies saying he didn't mean so.

  Imagine how people, fans or even the presenter would have reacted had it been Virat Kohli in place of Dhoni. Now because it's Dhoni who is a calm person, we cannot afford to celebrate what he did and applaud the same like most fans are already doing. It is just the superstardom getting bigger than what's right at times.

  The irony is that it's the same day(11th April 2016) a few years ago Harsha Bhogle expressed his thoughts after being removed from IPL commentary panel in 2016. Earlier in that year, Amitabh Bachchan tweeted about him not supporting India while commentating and Dhoni also retweeted that. Post that, he was removed from the commentary team in the 2016 IPL. Link to that post is below.


Now here's what he had to say about the yesterday event and I also stand by that. 



  

    I admire MS Dhoni as much as anybody else and love him for a lot of things he does on a cricket field. Yet what he did today isn't something I am proud of or happy about. It's heartening to see that he has been reprimanded 50 percent of his match fee for breaching the code of conduct. Dhoni himself admitted a level 2 offense 2.20 according to IPL code of conduct and accepted the sanction.





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