Heads up Captain cool, we are Proud of you and the boys!

A Haunting summer down under in Australia which never read India won and the crushing defeats in the Carlton Mid One-Day International Tri-series, which just sucked the morale of the team and the rest of the Indians, back home to a new low much ahead of the Cricket world cup.

Whole of media and the so called self-acclaimed critics hurled at the Men in Blue and their leader. It was so disheartening to demean Dhoni and his boys with the Cricket world cup just ahead. Every time when those sick people hurled him and his men in the media, he just kept calm, backed and safe guarded his boys just like any mother would never give his kid up during the lean patches.

I did quiver like many others did “what are these boys in the blue and their captain up to in this most trivial Cricket world cup? The defending champions are going to be humiliated like never before and we are going to give it back very easily without a valiant fight at all”.

Trust me we all knew it even before the WC started that “The Coveted trophy is not going to be ours this time and we are going to easily give it back”. It was a collective team effort from there on, a fairy tale turn around, a dream run from nowhere coupled with the tactical brilliance of the astute craftsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni. You can never deny that whatsoever.

Yes we weren’t even at our best, we beat our arch rivals Pakistan comprehensively and the fairy tale continued when the most daunting task was comprehensively accomplished in style when we convincingly defeated the mighty Proteas who were the favorites in the tournament very.

We knew it had to stop somewhere, the winning streak was supposed to be halted by any of the better teams and it happened against one such cricketing super power who were any day better than us throughout the tournament, the mighty Aussies.

We were impractical and greedy enough if we had wanted India to lift the world cup. Pragmatic people knew that India has had a decent world cup if not the best one. We cannot ask for anything more from a team that has had a poor run before the commencement of the world cup.

77/80 wickets, bowling out the opposition 7 times, 10 continuous wins in the WC campaigns, 7 consecutive wins, no losing of wickets during the power play 7 consecutive times, some brilliant bowling spells, some splendid batting display and some magnificent fielding display is no joke at all from a team which were under dogs earlier, which had no big names with the ball, which were away from the home for almost 5 months, which had to adapt to a different climate.

Come on boys Chin up, we have had a good run in the WC. We need to be sensible here; there is no big difference between the disheartened Bangladesh fans who still keeps cribbing about the no ball and the Indian fans who blame Anushka Sharma for the poor performance of Virat Kohli. We may win another world cup in the future but trust me there is not going to be yet another MS Dhoni for us. There can be only one Dhoni; nobody else can ever come close to his legacy and genius.

In a span of 8 years we have won 3 major ICC events, we lived the dream along with Sachin Tendulkar after 28 long years. We have been a super power in cricket. Dhoni and his boys have given us numerous reasons to celebrate, shout out of joy and happiness and have even made the dormant patriotic Indian in us peep out many a times.

It isn’t fair by any means to degrade and demean the boys just because of a single defeat that too in a semifinal against a better side. Success isn’t always about winning the trophies; champions aren’t measured by the number of trophies it’s about the passion, drive, commitment and the collective effort put forth. Our captain and his men were valiant enough to have won it 7/8 times in the tournament.

People, we are gifted to have a captain who has taken India to glory more than a hundred times, blessed to have a leader like whom other teams long to have one, a Captain who has always been humble when his team won and gracious to let it go and blame no one but him when we lost, a captain who has never played the blame game on others and who has always given credit to his boys when it was due, a leader who has never gloated in the limelight of others.

Thank you MS and the boys for the beautiful memories all throughout the tournament. It’s time you and your men spend some good time with your family before the IPL extravaganza begins. Well MS your princess is waiting to be held by the arms that won and held so many coveted trophies for the nation, go hold and hug her. The very moment of holding the little bunch of joy shall eclipse all the bad memories you and the boys have had so far.

It’s time we spare the boys and our captain some love for all that they have given us. One bad game and we shouldn’t forget the seven brilliant wins that our team put up. For a man who has told his wife “She is only the third most important thing after his country and his parents” all I wish is I could just go give him a tight hug and say keep your heads high captain, you and your boys have done us proud and we all love you and will continue to bleed blue whatsoever!

Another Proud Indian,
Mukunth Bhaskaran