If Mahendra Singh Dhoni is going to be around for a long time he must take care not to burn himself out. Otherwise he will be prematurely lost to the game, writes Peter Roebuck.
India has not played Test cricket for six months. Not since the drawn Adelaide contest at the start of 2008 has cricket’s most powerful nation taken part in a five-day match. Bear in mind that Test cricket is the highest state of the game, its equivalent to majors in golf and tennis.
It is the closest sport can come to opera or tragedy, elevations of the mind far removed from the soap operas of our daily lives and entertainments. Test cricket defines the game, explores its extremities. Without it the game is fun but frivolous.
Within a month the wait for India to resume its rich Test history will be over. Then purists will be able to enjoy the sight of Virender Sehwag countering the wiles of Chaminda Vaas and Sachin Tendulkar pitting his wits against Muttiah Muralitharan. Nothing is better in sport than the sight of great players engaged in an uncompromised struggle for supremacy. The Wimbledon men’s final was proof enough of that.
It might be supposed that all India and every Indian player was agog at the prospect of finally being able to exchange the hustle and bustle of one-day cricket and to experience again the technical and mental rigour of five-day cricket. Not a bit of it. Before the tour has even begun India’s vice-captain pleads exhaustion and pulls out. It is an alarming development and must not happen again.
If Mahendra Dhoni’s withdrawal is an isolated case then it can be absorbed. His situation is unusual. Owing to captaincy responsibilities, he could not easily miss a one-day match. And he has indeed been heavily committed, a long and emotionally charged Test and ODI campaign in Australia followed by the hurly-burly of IPL and then the Asia Cup in which his side reached the finals. Moreover, he played a leading role in all these activities, captaining the sides, usually keeping wickets and often trying to guide his team to victory in tension finishes. And shorter versions of the game are just as taxing as longer contests because every ball is crucial. It’s rarely the body that cries “enough!” A cold bath can revive weary limbs but the mind is not so easily renewed.
Dhoni is entitled to feel drained. But there is also the question of priorities. If he is going to be around for a long time he must take care not to burn himself out. Otherwise he will be prematurely lost to the game. Already it is happening in tennis, with champions retiring in their mid-20s, eager to leave the artifice and build “normal” lives. Dhoni has been playing a lot of cricket but has he not also been dashing about at the beck and call of sponsors? And at every appearance the player must perform. Of course it is natural for a boy from the backwaters to seize every opportunity but that time has passed. His exhaustion has been partly of his own making.
He is a precious asset to India and must find the elusive balance between desire and duty. All the more reason to marvel at Tendulkar’s durability. Against all expectation his body is giving way before his mind.
The BCCI was right to release its vice-captain but it must be a one-off. Hereafter Test cricket must come first. For his part Dhoni must put things in their proper places.
Otherwise the habit will spread, with established players turning out at their convenience, making money their God, becoming not champions but celebrities. India cannot afford that. Nor can cricket, a game that is also a craft and a calling.
Comments
SHARE