06 June,2009 07:58 AM IST | | Debasish Datta
The Indian cricket board were at their innovative best. They had the whole Indian squad to stand behind their captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (yes, literally) as he read out a statement rubbishing reports of a dispute between him and his vice-captain Virender Sehwag.
It was a unique experience to see all members of a team on the dais to support their captain. It was sad to hear the foreign media ridiculing the way this was handled but the fact is that it was all very farcical. Not for a moment, fabrication of news should be supported or tolerated but here was a case of the team being wrong in the first place by not being clear about a critical issue for which they ultimately blamed the media. After the warm-up tie against Pakistan, skipper Dhoni refused to give the media an update on the injured Virender Sehwag. "Ask the physio," he said.
Dhoni showed the poor and ugly side to his leadership by that statement. Probably, an appropriate reply would have been, "It's not possible to set a time frame for his recovery, but I'm hopeful he will be fit soon."
Yesterday's sham could have been avoided had Dhoni/team manager insisted on a statement been prepared for the media outlining the fitness updates of Sehwag and Zaheer Khan, the other unfit player in the team.
Coach Gary Kirsten revealed yesterday that Sehwag's shoulder injury was picked up during the Indian Premier League. It is believed that yesterday's media march was initiated by the BCCI, who obviously have some strange ideas of public relations. Indian cricket has still a lot to learn from the likes of Australia, England as well as some of their junior counterparts like Bangladesh, whom Dhoni's men take on in their World Twenty20 opener here today.
