The Chief-Deputy dynamics has been part of the popular discourse over the ages. Especially when the deputy is more gifted than chief. In fact this is a big dilemma. Every chief wants an able deputy who can prove to be a favorable aide de camp for him. But at the same time, he would not want a too stronger deputy who eventually turn the tables on him. You can also call this Duncan-Macbeth dynamics, where Macbeth eventually topple Duncan sooner or later.
This is what has happened with Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli. Kohli has been growing bigger and bigger, only at the expense of Dhoni, and Dhoni was almost forced to acknowledge it. He had quit captaincy in longer format, only hoping that this will give him a longer rope for the limited overs formats. Wasn’t to be. Virat Kohli performerd so brilliantly as test captain that Dhoni had to feel the heat of it. He Had to sense that he is after all living in Kohli era and playing in a Kohli team, not the other way round. Dhoni’s slump in form also didn’t help. India started winning less matches under his stewardship and after a flurry of defeats in overseas test matches, also lost the possession of ODI and T-20 World Cups. Kohli was making all the runs for India and winning most games. It was only obvious that he would rather want to do this as leader of the pack and Dhoni had to see the light on it.
Recently, former captain Sourav Ganguly had said somewhere that he will be amazed if Kohli doesn’t become captain of Indian Cricket Team in all formats anytime soon. And he could not have been more prophetic. It was’t too long ago when Dhoni had pulled the curtains down on the Ganguly era of Indian cricket. Cricket lovers would remember how Ganguly was almost forced to take retirement. In his last game, when Dhoni was already captain, he had approached to Dada and requested him to play the role of the captain for few minutes. That was indeed a nice gesture from Dhoni but could Ganguly have appreciated it? Wouldn’t he have find it little embarrassing? Like some consolation trophy?
Dhoni had precided over the ousting of all the pillars of Ganguly era from the team, one by one - Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan – and he was instrumental in preparing a new team of young athletes. Virat Kohli was part of that bunch. Dhoni also foresaw the retirement of cricketing giants like Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble. Dravid and Laxman did’t even get a chance to ceremoniously play their last game. Finally, the greatest of them all had to bid farewell : Sachin Tendulkar. The reign of Dhoni was now complete. Or was it?
Sachin retired in December 2013, but in less than two years, the whole scene changed. Its only ironic that today Dhoni finds himself in the same place where Tendulkar used to find himself during the back end of his long and illustrious career. And today Kohli finds himself in the same place, where Dhoni was once. He is pushing Dhoni back and Dhoni has been constantly conceding ground to him. Histroy repeates itself.
Dhoni had his own shortcomings. Maybe he was less conscious about his legacy as a player than his legacy as a batsman. He has done a lot for Indian cricket but he easily could have done more with his batting. Indians are obsessed with personal records and milestones and he could easily have batted higher up the order more often. However, Dhoni is not one of those who would request BCCI to organize a “farewell spectacle” for him. He is one of those who would rather one day decare his retirement without any fuss and walk away silently. However, we would not want to let him go like this. He has been a champion player over the years. We would want to give him an overwhelming farewell when the hour will struck. The best finisher of world cricket at least deserves a decent finish for himself too.
