Fans burn Dhoni effigy in his hometown
15 Jun 2009, 2314 hrs IST, Jaideep Deogharia, TNN
RANCHI: They have waited hours at the airport or at his residence to accord raucous welcomes. They have stayed up all night glued to the television,
following his every move on some faraway land. They have composed songs in his praise, and even built temples to worship him...
The adulation that Mahendra Singh Dhoni has enjoyed in his hometown ever since he stepped out to the international stage has been a most extraordinary phenomenon even in a country so familiar with the fanatical following of its cricketers. Suddenly, all that is gone.
On Monday, in the wake of Team India's exit from the World T20 in England, irate fans took out a funeral procession on the streets of Ranchi with Dhoni's effigy before finally setting it on fire. The fans, most of them students from local schools and colleges, had first gathered at a busy crossing with an effigy of the Indian skipper and proceeded to shower kicks and then garland it with shoes. The funeral procession followed.
"We are not going to continue revering these players if they fail to perform," an angry fan said, not forgetting to point out that the entire country respects them because they play and bring laurels for the country. Ironically, Dhoni was singled out with fans reminding that India were the defending champions and this time he couldn't guide to even the semifinals.
However, the protests didn't go down well in many quarters with senior members of the sports fraternity and family members of Dhoni coming out strongly against them.
During the 2007 World Cup of ODIs which saw the early exit of India under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid, Dhoni had to face the ire of fans here. His under construction house was ransacked by a handful of fans and a funeral procession was taken out. It prompted Dhoni's father Paan Singh from communicating with media. "These old eyes are not ready to see the funeral procession of my dear son. I would never ask the media to highlight his achievements if they are to show the funeral alongside," he had said them.
Chanchal Bhattacharya, who coached Dhoni in his early years, criticized the fanaticism. "When people start burning effigies of players because they failed in one match, it needs to be condemned. It is this pressure on the criketers that keeps them from playing their natural game," he said.
Bhattacharya also asked fans to watch matches more closely before drawing conclusions.
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