We find sledging back in the spotlight after India’s Rohit Sharma indulged in it against Australia’s Mitchell Johnson, in the first innings played by the hosts down-under. The latter retaliated by tearing through the Indian innings with the ball. Come to think of it, sledging against a member of the opposing team can backfire horribly for your own team, as Rohit has lived to find out. Ask Yuvraj Singh, the victim of sledging during the inaugural World T20 Tournament that took place some years ago in South Africa. England’s Andrew Flintoff had been the perpetrator on that occasion, and he must have regretted provoking Yuvraj when he slammed a sensational six sixes of England’s Stuart Broad to put the Brits out of the tourney.
So after the Rohit Sharma incident, the message from the management in the Indian dressing room is loud and clear: don’t let tempers fly, keep your cool. Dhoni’s displeasure at the misunderstanding between Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli was apparent in the way the Indian captain spoke of unrest in the dressing room, after the last test match in Australia. That misunderstanding did play its part in India’s unravelling at the hands of the Aussies.
This is probably the second time when the captain voluntarily said something to the media. The last time, it was Sourav Ganguly during the 2005 Zimbabwe tour. Then Indian coach Greg Chappell had suggested that Ganguly should relinquish his mantle of captaincy to concentrate more on his batting. Later, it turned out to be one of the biggest spats in world cricketing history. Fortunately, the recent spat between Kohli and Dhawan isn’t anywhere close in terms of magnitude, but it’s certainly shown the team in poor light.
Also, in the past, there have been quite a few dressing room dramas. The historic 2004 Pakistan tour, when Sachin Tendulkar was left stranded on 194 in Multan Test, he wasn’t pleased by the way things went down. Then, there was talk of Indian coach John Wright having slapped Virender Sehwag for getting out cheaply during a ODI match in Oval (2002), and the 1996 tour of England when Navjot Singh Sidhu stormed out of the Indian team after a verbal dual with then captain Mohd Azharuddin.
Now here’s the question of the moment: Can India turn it around from here? Thanks to the Indian captain, things have become normal after the forgettable Brisbane Test match. The feeling of camaraderie may not be same between Kohli and Dhawan, but for the sake of the team, they have decided to bury the hatched. Hope, it’s not like the 2005 Zimbabwe tour when Ganguly and Chappell were seen playing a game of pool to bring back peace into the dressing room after the spat. But things were never the same.
Ganguly lost his captaincy to Dravid and Chappell eventually lost his job as a coach after the 2007 World Cup debacle. We can hopefully rule out anything of the kind happening here. But since these cricketers are like a family, staying together through most of the year, it’s better for both of them to forget and forgive each other. Even Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja were involved in an unpleasant on-field exchange during the 2013 tour of the West Indies, but it was put to rest by the boys themselves.
Both Kohli and Dhawan could learn something from Tendulkar and Dravid, who were able to close the Multan Test match episode before their next Test match in Pakistan. The likes of Tendulkar and Dravid never sledged at any fellow cricketer, prompting them to respond by snatching the game away. They never doubted each other’s ability during their playing days. Eventually, they became cult figures and left a permanent imprint on the history of Indian cricket by displaying the true spirit of the game.
Like them You need strength of character to take your mind away from something that distracted you from the objective – winning games.
