Saturday 27 / April / 2024
A month ago, after scripting a record three centuries in a single season of the Indian Premier League, Virat Kohli put the secret behind his success down to an eat-sleep-train-repeat routine. That’s the sort of boring cycle of life top cricketers around the world need to get used to in order to catch up with or go past the elite few who set incredible benchmarks for others to break a lot of sweat. Obviously, there will come a time when they realise they couldn’t do it anymore, and that’s when we get to hear about the simple joys of life they would look forward to doing in their post-retirement days.
Bidding goodbye to 16 years of international cricket life in March 2012, Rahul Dravid said he was excited about a brand new routine of buying grocery and picking up his children from school. In 2008, Anil Kumble’s shoulders were “pretty weak after bowling more than 10,000 international overs”, but they were still strong enough to support wildlife conservation that got him into embarking on many jungle journeys during one of which, a year ago, he had an up, 10-foot close and personal encounter with a tiger.
Nothing could, however, keep these guys off the 22 yards for long. Dravid is happy to take a break now and then from family routines to be in charge of the juniors, spotting, moulding and inspiring them to do bigger things. Kumble will now be on the road again, trying to play an “invisible” innings along with Kohli, MS Dhoni and their boys.
Apparently, there’s no room for everyone. Those who played their last innings a long time ago, some 24 years as in the case of Ravi Shastri, may have to make room for guys who played the game until more recently, say eight years ago, as in the case of Kumble. Old order need to change, yielding place to new.
Those who have watched Dhoni struggle with the bat in the recent months have been wondering how long the legend could hang around. If we go by his performance in the just concluded Zimbabwean tour, Dhoni’s days as a batsman seem numbered. The ICC World Cup has been scheduled for July 2019, but the three years in time looks like the wide yorker outside off stump that Dhoni fails to connect nowadays.
Dhoni batted just twice during the Zimbabwean tour, and his performance in both innings was below par. In the first T20, India lost the match when only eight runs were needed from the last over, with Dhoni at the crease, having already faced 14 balls. In the third, which India won off the last ball, Dhoni struggled to make nine runs from 13 balls. Four dot balls in a row in the 15th over when the score was 84 for four, a single off the last ball to retain strike, another dot ball off the first ball of the 16th over, then a single, one more dot ball off the first delivery of the 17th over as he tried to slog and missed, and, finally, a repeat hit-and-miss rattled his stumps. The legend of the famed finisher looked ancient.
If the end is in sight, what’s going to keep Dhoni busy in his post-playing days? Earlier this year he said the souvenir stumps were part of his retirement plan. The stumps have not been marked, so he would watch videos of the matches to identify them. Fine, but after spending a few months playing video games, riding bikes, listening to music and marking “ok this from that match”, what next?
On current form, it’s time for Dhoni to mark the stumps and enjoy a season or two of the Indian Premier League as the coach of a franchise of his choice. That done, possibly in three to four years, he could look for his room in the Indian dugout. As the coach, of course. Leave the ICC World Cup in 2019 to Kohli and Kumble. Prospects may be brighter for MS beyond 2019.
The writer is a freelance contributor based in India. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman
