The uber captain
A standout moment of the IPL final between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings was MS Dhoni’s innovative field placement for Keiron Pollard.
Besides a regular long off on the boundary line, MS placed a mid off on the edge of the circle. “We tried this out in practice against Mathew Hayden,” MS later explained. “Bit hitters don’t play reverse sweeps and dabs, they look to hit down the ground,” he further explained, arguing that in such cases, a mishit to a fullish length ball outside off would present a catch to mid off, and if the shot did come off, there was always long off to limit the damage.
Brilliant captaincy, I thought at the time as I watched Mathew Hayden at mid off dive to hold Pollard off a mishit, and thus end any remote chance MI had to pull off a win.
Now I am beginning to wonder.
According to sources, Venkatesan’s influence over Srinivasan and the team has risen to such an extent that he decides who should be included in the playing XI and also, shockingly, the batting order.
Dhoni himself was told to bat at various positions throughout the tournament, sources said, even though he was successful at Nos 5 and 6 in the first two matches.
The decision to open the bowling with off spinner R. Ashwin – thought to be a strategic masterstroke by Dhoni – was also allegedly dictated by Venkatesan, as was the decision to bowl Muttiah Muralitharan’s full four overs quota in all the 11 matches he played. Luckily for CSK, Ashwin’s promotion worked wonders for the team.
According to insiders, Venkatesan even decides Dhoni should bat or field if he wins the toss. Though Venkatesan is over the moon when Chennai wins, sources said he comes up with inane explanations for the team’s loss.
“On one occasion, he said the team lost because someone had parked his car on the western side of the stadium,” an insider said. ” To this, our team owner just nodded his head in agreement.
Link courtesy Manu, on Twitter.
I am more worried about this:
Sources close to the CSK team said Vastu was introduced to Srinivasan by Krishnamachari Srikkanth, former India batsman and the current chairman of the BCCI selection committee.
Srikkanth is also CSK’s brand ambassador.
“Srikkanth relies heavily on Venkatesan’s advice,” sources said.
I almost fell off my chair, when I read the bit – that CSK lost a game because a car was parked on the West side of the stadium.
Another ridiculous bit is -> “According to insiders, Venkatesan even decides Dhoni should bat or field if he wins the toss. ” Dhoni wins the toss and while cameras are looking elsewhere, quickly checks his Maxx mobile for a SMS from Venkatesan ???
Wait, is Venkatesan the reason why N Srivasan called for the IPL GC meeting (minus Modi)??
For whatever its worth, this is definitely more entertaining the IPL-gate
no shit, sherlock!!
“Another ridiculous bit is -> “According to insiders, Venkatesan even decides Dhoni should bat or field if he wins the toss. ” Dhoni wins the toss and while cameras are looking elsewhere, quickly checks his Maxx mobile for a SMS from Venkatesan ???”
do you honestly believe that the captain makes the decision to bat or bowl during the few seconds he has between him winning the toss and the camera being thrust into his face?
- s.b.
One always decides what to do before the toss. If you lose the toss, it just that the decision is no longer yours.
I read the article and it says Dhoni stands to lose a cool $ 1.5 million. What is the writer smoking? It’s not like no team will bid for him if he decides to walk out on Chennai. If anything, he’ll probably get a higher salary now that he’s captain of India in all formats and led his IPL team to victory this season.
Oh, that bit is pure bunkum — MS actually stands to gain if he quits Chennai, because as you pointed out, the bidding for him will go through the roof.
Prem, but the other point is valid: MS may antagonize Srinivasan and Srikanth, thereby getting into muddy waters in terms of captaincy and stuff like that…does he want that to happen?
Speaking of this : Shouldn’t the IPL allow the player to decide if he should take part in the auction stay with the current team and if so, negotiate a better contract with the current team. They have the same concept in MLB in the US. When a player’s contract is over he becomes a “free agent”.
Who is this Venkatesan? I can’t recall.
N Srinivasan’s astrologer. Click on the story I linked to, boss. What is posted here is just a clip
Probably team India is also being selected by Venkatesan. That explains Piyush Chawla and other dodgy selections
LOL. Find it too hard to believe. Me thinks this is a product of some fertile imagination
Hi Prem
By saying “beginning to wonder”, do you really believe the info from that “source”.
Do you think, Mr. VV would have suggested Hayden to be placed there when Pollard was batting? We have witnessed some brilliant moves on the field by Dhoni so far and I think it would be not be good on our part to blame that guy.
As you say, Mr. VV would have drawn some circle/square on ground or whatever and may even did those parking jokes. Let the brand ambassador and team owner have their personal choices. The team is owned by them and they have their choice, but letting down Dhoni and his men on their team strategies is a bad move.
Cheers
SS
Ooops, that was meant in fun. I doubt the astrologer told Dhoni to put a bloke at mid off, for instance.
Though if — and that is a big IF — CSK gets an astrologer to dictate batting orders and such, it is not something I am happy to countenance.
Took this entire story with a bagful of salt. Suggest you do, too.
Huh..
on the followup to my previous comment,
Did I miss the satire on your post? I can’t make it though..Oopsy..
Though I find it funny, it takes a courage to implement a decision such as making a novice spin bowler to open
One thing is clear looking at all the news thats been floating and reading your blog for a while now makes me wonder whether these are planned leaks for Dhoni to get out of CSK next year to another team.
His reactions in Dharamsala, his mention in the presentation chat explicitly about the “franchisees pressure” makes me wonder.
Heck, the personality that he is, even if he even moves to Kolkata as captain rarely would there be problem with Ganguly playing under him!
Noticed that speech in Dharamsala but during the finals speech he spoke as if he is going to stay – he said he would luv to retain the players but it is unfortunate that he will end up losing some of them.
Another noticeable one was Raina being pulled wide at midwicket when Tiwary came in to bat; though he had to run and dive to pull that catch off.
This has been said ad nauseam, but Dhoni’s uber cool. For once, the Fake IPL player was right in according a moniker – Cooldude
What abt the one for Sreesanth? That was pretty apt too:-)
Now I know why Joginder Sharma of all the bowlers in the world, bowled that historic final over in the T20 WC final. Now I know why Misbah hit that scoop shot, and why Sreesanth of all people, managed to cling onto the catch.
Everything was fixed, rigged, and set by astrologers right?
I love conspiracy theories, but this is a step too far. Sound like some old wives’ tale.
We can go on and on about it, or admit that move by Dhoni was a captaincy masterstroke.
Cheers!
Vasu
P.S: Did Mr. V.V cast a spell on Sachin’s brain and made him keep Pollard on the bench, till it was almost over? just checking if you have a theory on that as well
Maybe here on, when I am being sarcastic, I’ll put something like: #Sarcasm: Uber Captain in the headline, just to make sure.
Maybe we shud pack this guy and send him to the windies. He shall draw lines and win us the world cup:) jokes apart, why would anyone run such a report based on sources is not understandable. Also I thot the contracts run out after season three, so Dhoni does not lose out anything?? total madness this…
No malice intended Prem! You I should add the same #Sarcasm tag to my reply as well.
I am waiting for someone to blindly defend Sachin’s captaincy on the final day. I am a huge admirer of Sachin, but was laughing at reading reports that Robin Singh was to blamed for sending in Pollard late.
So that means when MI win, its God’s magic, but when they lose , Robin Singh screwed up rite?
Or is there a Vasstu or Astrology angle to it?: )Please tell me yes!
Cheers!
Vasu
*grin* None taken — was somewhat surprised by the uber serious way this story was taken here, is all.
About SRT’s captaincy — that is the problem I’ve struggled with for all of my career, and his. Apparently it is not possible to admire the man for his skills, yet question errors whether of captaincy or in individual innings.
The dividing line between admiration and sycophancy is something we do not recognize, at least in the cricket universe.
“The dividing line between admiration and sycophancy is something we do not recognize, at least in the cricket universe.”
that is especially true of all of ganguly’s supporters. they just cannot understand that there are some flaws in the dude (though, all said and done, he is well on the positive side of the ledger).
- s.b.
On a serious note, Prem, has the media (or the journo who published this piece in India today) REALLY stopped using their brains, are they just happy with #hits on their sites as against quality ? Really disappointed with increasing amount of such trash that’s being written.
If you probe the media, they’ll say – this is what the public want !! IMO – that’s so lame. I think Arnab Choudhury will quality as the captain of such a journo team!
The thing that worries me is: It appeared in India today, which has a place in creating public opinion in India. So, either an influential journal has sunk to the bottom; Or the way Cricket is played by topmost professionals.
Either way, its bad; seriously bad.
India Today is not the same with the change in ownership. It resembles other tabloids.
Big Dhoni fan here.. i want Dhoni to be a floating IPL captain from next year onwards. KKR-IPL4, Mumbai-IPL5, Bangalore-IPL6, Punjab-IPL7, Delhi-IPL8 to get the remaining franchises the title and show who is the Uber captain.
you left out the two new teams..
i thought about it, but was looking in terms of who is captaing the other franchises right now (assuming Yuvraj gets back KingsXI reins). i dont know who is going to lead kochi/pune franchises as of now
Ha ha ha ha ha. This surely has got to be the WTF news of the year so far. Does the newspaper have some kind of a nexus with Venkatesan? If this guy has an annual revenue of 2crore, i’m in the wrong profession ! I should hit the jackpot sometime at least with the law of averages.
Another point, Can Dhoni sue Venkatesan or the newspaper for defamation?
VV will consult some real astrologers, and if his time is good, he would sue them. Else he would back off
Cheers!
Vasu
Do you know that the Ambanis flew down to Tirupathi early on Sunday morning to seek blessings for the match later that evening? And that they flouted the rules and entered the temple at a forbidden hour? Read about it here http://www.deccanpost.in/view_news.php?type=ts&cid=1&sid=1&nid=14305.
Everybody is superstitious and mad. Only the degree varies.
Moral of the story is, Tirupati Balaji doesn’t give a fig for who wins the IPL?
LOL !!!!!
LOL ! Too funny
maybe Ambani’s were merely praying for Sachin to play and not necessarily for Mumbai to win?
As a chennai fan, I think this news is a leak by Modi’s aides
On Vastu, most tamils follow vastu bcos everybody else does the same(like a fashion). People can be stupidly conservative. But, nonetheless, it is shocking to see IIT educated people follow Vastu/Astrology etc
And be thankful that CSK did not take the advice of a Bangalseshi astrologer
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/bangladesh/7493874/Bangladeshi-man-beheaded-to-redden-bricks.html)
I suppose India Cements is next, now that this has worked for CSK ….
I think one “defect” in SRT is that his cricketing mind switches off, and misses out some cricketing details, when he is under some confusion and when he is shouldering responsibility. It applies in batting too. I still remember the way he got out in that Sydney test(yes, THAT Sydeney test) second innings. He got a boundary, Gilly came closer to the stumps, and Clarke bowled a very normal good length delivery, SRT did “something” in utter confusion and got an inside edge. It was an act from a cluttered mind. He is not a “cool dude” for sure. But I wouldnt stretch it to figure out that he doesnt handle pressure, like Kapil said once. He has been eating pressure all his cricketing life; so its not about ability to handle pressure, some finer mental skill is missing.
I think the big game pressure got to SRT.. I guess he thot that if pollard got out early say in the 12/13th over the rest of the team would have been hardpressed to get the total. Duminy sent ahead can also be attributed to a momentary lapse of reason, that unfortunately cost Mumbai the IPL…Being super kool in such situations helps as seen by dhoni, even after that 22 run over out of nowhere by pollard..
Tamils are freaking nuts about this vastu, numerology, astrology, horoscope crap. As a Tam myself, I can vouch for it, as I am surrounded by this load of BS on a daily basis from family and friends. One of my friend’s sister (Uma), changed the spelling of her name to “Uhma” yeah, that’s right, uh.. Ma! And I vist India after a few years with my new girlfriend-fiance and after the initial pleasantries, my nephew launches in to, “so, when is your birthday?” and goes on to suggest changes to the way she spells her name… So, its not too far-fetched that CSK had a residential astrologer guy.. Of course, its a ridiculous story, but you can’t put anything past a group of crazy Tams.
-Subash
As someone who has been following cricket for a long time-I can say this much Dhoni looks great when his team performs and otherwise ordinary.
Look at 2009 T20 WC,same was the case till CSK struggled to qualify for semis and his decision to leave Murali out,and included Hayden for every match.
But this is also true for other captains like Waugh and Ponting-they look good when it comes out well.
On being cool-again disagree-the Badri run out being case in point-he definitely did not look cool neither at the presentation when he mentioned it.
Everyone was appreciating SRT as a Captain and a Batsman till the finals,everyone is now sticking it into SRT for the Pollard decision?What about his decision to play-while not being fit?His over eagerness could have let down his team or maybe his intent to grab the orange cap?Or does the MI team feel they cannot even enter the field without SRT?One does not need an astrologer -there are many factors-one was the toss itself -if you look at the semis and finals-teams which batted first won-there was no pressure of chasing.
I just read the clip and thought this guy looks like an astrologer morethan a cricket manager – and coming to the comments I see he indeed is one! – man we are some people!!
As subhash mentioned, astrologers are dominating lots of tamilnadu, andhra
In the end, these things also contribute to general public’s cynicism of Godmen, astrolgers. Astrology was developed to organize vedic rites but liberal usage in every field will eventually cause people to lose faith in religion itself…
But CSK success will make the players feel beholden to chennai and nobody will try to move to another team,
IPL fiasco, allegations of corruption, influence of astrology etc reminds of 2000 where match fixing reigned and all of us lost faith in cricket until Ganguly and John Wright brought back trust. we are so deluded by our 2007 twenty20 victory that we are forgotting what caused the team to fly high from 2001 to 2010
Prem,
The whole story about the astrologer maybe funny and amusing. But the part about N.Srivinasan earmarked to become the next president is not funny at all. Is that bit true, or the just the imagination of an over eager journalist?
wtf. It looks like there is at least “some” credibility to the story.
From today’s hindu:
Vaastu factor
When on all things controversial, what about the role vaastu has played in Chennai Super Kings’ matches at the instance of owner N. Srinivasan?
Dhoni, who has reportedly been a little piqued about having to bow to stellar configurations when making cricketing decisions, played defensive:
“Srinivasan’s vaastu has been good…nothing bad. Every franchise is doing little things. It is subtle…most cricketers are superstitious. No wild predictions like was made in 2007.”
http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/28/stories/2010042862801800.htm
Ok. So, Dhoni himself has confirmed the larger part of the story. Nobody is going to talk about the minor details, for sure. So, its no more the captain and the coach making cricketing decisions, its the team owner.
So, whatif some bookie gives a million dollar to the team owner to come up with a particular team lineup? Cricket is treading on dangerous waters, for sure.
What is sad is that the Indian Captain, none less, could not prevent it. Thats a shame!!!
Nowdays most of the decisions in T20 or otherwise can be made off the field.Example:
a)If win the toss and bat first or bowl first (can be made based on pitch)
b)batting order/bowling order-ofcourse it’s a different story if your bowling is tonked
c)Evn fielding positions for different fielders can be made by support staff.
d)What if scenarios can also be planned for before the game and this can also be taken care during the strategic time outs.
Ofcourse the team selections can be made by astrologers,spin doctors and owners or film stars or even the captain likes and dslikes.
The franchise model is nothing new to the world of sport and booking is not alone for cricket. If a franchise chose to go that way as you said (taking bribe),It could be a short term benefit but it is losing its value,credibility and more so the support from the people/crowd on the longer run and cannot sustain.
These Vastu and all the other stuff are smaller factors. It might work one day and might not the other day. Whatever it is, the final 11 has to play to win.
It was interesting to hear Dhoni’s interview on NDTV yesterday, where he did not completely deny the Vastu / Astrology influence, but made it appear light hearted.
I am trying to make sense of all the non cricketing factors such as luck, astrology, vastu, match fixing, etc etc and trying to map it to the exciting tournament we had.
There are two scenarios:
1. The IPL was rigged, fixed, voodoed by a variety of players (bookies in Dubai to astrologers in South India!), and the whole thing was artificial. So in a sense it is like the WWF, or reality TV: great fun, but all artificial. If that is the case then all of our cricketers should be working in Hollywood, Bollywood or Kollywood. I mean, if Dhoni’s captaincy act, or Sachin’s master class batting, or Yusuf Pathan’s blitzkrieg century were all artificial, then these people are the best actors the world have ever seen. Move over Clint Eastwood, Aamir Khan, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, SRK…our IPL stars can give you a class in acting!
2. There have been many elements trying to fix and rig the matches, but at the end of the day it was pure cricket, that made the difference between win and loss.
I am somehow inclined to go with the second scenario as the entire cricket looked so real to me. Even if it was scenario 1, I don’t give a damn. To me, test cricket is the real thing, and I hope that’s not fixed. So I would be happy in my bubble that there was this side show called IPL which was good fun
Cheers!
Vasu
That begs a larger question- Whats wrong with fixing a match as long as it gives great entertainment? Suppose that an India-Aus Test is fixed (but we dont know it) so that the test finishes in the last over of the fifth day?
Whats wrong with artificially created fun? If you tell that it is not sustainable, and detrimental to the game in the long run, then you need to give some damn about both these scenarios.
Yeah am wondering if that is the sad direction in which cricket is headed. WWF / WWE is a classic example of that…everybody knows its artificial, but we still watch it. (I don’t personally, but millions swear by it).I hope that’s not true about cricket as well, but if that’s the case, I would personally reconcile to it…cricket is a huge pasion for me like millions of others, and I will have to give a damn about whether it was fixed or not, and continue watching it!
Cheers!
Vasu
After being kicked out of BCCI, Modi will start a new thing: WTE (World T20 Entertainment) with scripted T20 matches!!! Winners will be decided by bidding; and the matches will be scripted to the tune of the bidders. Cool.
Fixing is different from favouring. Like the way ferrari is always favoured in F1. There is no explicit fixing going on here. I think Modi tried to favour Mumbai this time. It back-fired in the final I guess. Mumbai froze under pressure, one of the reasons is they had a easy qualification. no hard matches like Deccan/Chennai.
Will it have the mrf blimp??:)