I am in a state of shock. I can't believe India, the Defending Champions are out of the world cup without even reaching the semis. I know there are people out there saying "its a sport", "it happens", "you can't expect them to win always", etc etc. However, I don't think its that simple. We Indians are passionate about cricket and do have expectations with our Demi-Gods. We give them the adulation when they deservedly win and have the right to give them the brickbats when they lose as well, especially in this manner.
For starters, I would rest the blame on Mahender Singh Dhoni. I do not agree with the camp that feel otherwise. MSD has committed blunders as a captain all thru the tourney. He himself wasn't a patch of what he was as a hard hitting, much feared batsmen. We saw him nudge and push the ball instead of belting it out of the stadiums like in his glorious past. The blame however, cannot be thrust only on MSD as cricket is a team game and the other team members have to share the blame equally. I would absolve Yuvraj and Rohit Sharma from the blame as they were probably the only players who stood out and showed some level of aggression. The team simply lacked the hunger and aggression which all players displayed during the highly paying IPL.
I would certainly like to see MSD lose his captaincy, not as a punishment but more in the interest of the team. I would like to see the free flowing strokes of MSD. I do think the burden of captaincy is playing on his batting. This has happened in the past with the great Sachin Tendulkar. Once he didn't have the burden of captaincy he revived his batting once again. This is what is needed for the men in (dark) blue too. The most effective replacement for MSD would have been Yuvraj. However, as the same would probably happen to the wonderful stroke play of Yuvraj in the future, I think we should opt for different captains for the different formats of the game - Rahul Dravid for tests, Sachin for one dayers and Bhajji for T20s. Radical thought...but worth a try.
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