Cricket is a passion in India and it is also the world's powerhouse as it generates 60% of the finance for the game. Yesterday the world was shocked that Mahendra Singh Dhoni (the Indian captain) resigned as the Indian captain for the limited version of the game. Fans were taken by surprise at this announcement, especially as he had been appointed the captain of the Indian team to face England in the One-day series commencing on January 16th and 17th. Onlookers were perplexed as Dhoni had expressed his desire to lead India in the 2019 World Cup.
What could have happened that made Dhoni resign his position?
MS Dhoni
Most Indian sports players led by SachinTendulkar have hailed the decision to retire. The cricket board has said that the resignation was not at its behest and they had not talked to Dhoni about his retirement. Some close confidants of Dhoni have given a clue as to his thinking. It appears that Dhoni was not certain that he would be retained as captain for another 2 years as his performance and that of the Indian team under him was going down. He, therefore, decided to relinquish the captaincy so that he could continue playing as a player, and thus extend his shelf life. He was also probably under pressure with the performance of the test cricket captain of the regular team, Virat Kohli.
Indian cricket is a hero worship game and with Virat Kohli making a spectacular entry, Dhoni realized he would be sidelined soon. Hence his decision to resign his captaincy.
Future
Dhoni has retired at his peak. A film on his life was also made. He was a successful one day and T-20 captain, though his performance as captain of the national test team could have been better.
He was saved from being axed as captain by the Board President at the time, Srinivasan after successive defeats abroad against England and Australia. There is, however, a possibility that Dhoni saw the writing on the wall and decided to call it a day as captain. He said he will be available as a player, but one will remember that he is no longer the player he was, and at 35, he may have to make way for another player to take the spotlight.
