English journalists and cricket fans are noisy folks, so you had to expect the barrage that came following England's untimely exit from the World Cup. There was plenty written and said about everyone - from the board president to the former captain, the current coach and of course - that evergreen punching bag of English cricket - Kevin Pietersen. Plenty written and said, but not a word on Eoin Morgan, the man at the helm. The most that one could hear or read about the English captain was how he was the unfortunate scapegoat, thrust at the wheel of a sinking ship.
That isn't mere sympathy. Born in Ireland, yet belonging to England, Morgan was yet another of those stolen cricketers who were meant to change the face of English cricket. But even as England's ill-fated World Cup journey was about to begin, few knew if he would truly lead the side. True to their form, the conservative Englishmen stuck steadfast by the side of their conservative skipper, Alastair Cook, even as he took the English team from one defeat to another. Then, just weeks ahead of world cricket's greatest competition, Eoin Morgan was dug out from the cold and put in charge. He did his best, however, in his first real assignment in Australia, leading his side in a triseries that really featured just two teams - the hosts and his own. Then came the World Cup, where, in the words of Steve Waugh, the conservative Englishmen played a brand of cricket more suited to 1989, albeit under the guise of naturally more progressive talent.
Don't forget though that not too long ago, the celebrated Indian team was in the same phase as England are in today. Following the 2007 World Cup, the equally ferocious Indian media wrote pages and pages together about anyone and everyone. In a most recent interview, the captain of the time, the otherwise unflappable Rahul Dravid said of the experience that "captaincy wasn't what I thought it would be. It was more about personalities and less about cricket." Dravid said that he soon grew tired of leadership and handed it down to an individual he thought was ready for the job and hungry for it.
In the months that followed, the face of Indian cricket changed entirely. MS Dhoni, still relatively new to international cricket himself, took India to a most famous T20 championship victory in South Africa, and soon followed that up with history in different parts of the world. India later went to the summit of world cricket - in all formats - and stayed formidable for a fairly long time.
It isn't that MS Dhoni hasn't had failures. He once lost 8 Test matches in a row outside of India and, eventually, himself "grew tired" of leadership in the longest format. In the ODI triseries that preceded this World Cup, India were rolled over, failing to win a game, despite spending enough time in Australia to even learn its geography in good detail. Yet, such is the nature of success and failure, that one can easily overshadow the other, in quick time. India can now do no wrong and the captain himself is unsure about how this phoenix-like transformation came about.
Morgan is not too different from MS Dhoni. Both are equally likable - daring, innovative, diplomatic and yet, candid, frank and reserved by nature. So could Morgan now become England's Dhoni? The greatest challenge that leaders face when they take over in times of tumult is dealing with uncertainty and loneliness. No one gave Dhoni a chance when he first came in. Even his place in the team was under doubt. Whether a junior cricketer would be able to handle the personalities whom the great Rahul Dravid himself could not deal with was yet to be seen. But introverts like MS Dhoni and Eoin Morgan have a gift - they tend to isolate themselves from the world that gobbles up most, thereby making them great shock-absorbers - a quality seen most visibly in folks whom pundits call 'great finishers'. Yet, spare a thought for the man from Ireland who must now reform the conservatives of the UK. He now needs to turn into a political statesman as well.
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| That Sinking Feeling: Morgan isn't too different from Dhoni |
Don't forget though that not too long ago, the celebrated Indian team was in the same phase as England are in today. Following the 2007 World Cup, the equally ferocious Indian media wrote pages and pages together about anyone and everyone. In a most recent interview, the captain of the time, the otherwise unflappable Rahul Dravid said of the experience that "captaincy wasn't what I thought it would be. It was more about personalities and less about cricket." Dravid said that he soon grew tired of leadership and handed it down to an individual he thought was ready for the job and hungry for it.
In the months that followed, the face of Indian cricket changed entirely. MS Dhoni, still relatively new to international cricket himself, took India to a most famous T20 championship victory in South Africa, and soon followed that up with history in different parts of the world. India later went to the summit of world cricket - in all formats - and stayed formidable for a fairly long time.
It isn't that MS Dhoni hasn't had failures. He once lost 8 Test matches in a row outside of India and, eventually, himself "grew tired" of leadership in the longest format. In the ODI triseries that preceded this World Cup, India were rolled over, failing to win a game, despite spending enough time in Australia to even learn its geography in good detail. Yet, such is the nature of success and failure, that one can easily overshadow the other, in quick time. India can now do no wrong and the captain himself is unsure about how this phoenix-like transformation came about.
Morgan is not too different from MS Dhoni. Both are equally likable - daring, innovative, diplomatic and yet, candid, frank and reserved by nature. So could Morgan now become England's Dhoni? The greatest challenge that leaders face when they take over in times of tumult is dealing with uncertainty and loneliness. No one gave Dhoni a chance when he first came in. Even his place in the team was under doubt. Whether a junior cricketer would be able to handle the personalities whom the great Rahul Dravid himself could not deal with was yet to be seen. But introverts like MS Dhoni and Eoin Morgan have a gift - they tend to isolate themselves from the world that gobbles up most, thereby making them great shock-absorbers - a quality seen most visibly in folks whom pundits call 'great finishers'. Yet, spare a thought for the man from Ireland who must now reform the conservatives of the UK. He now needs to turn into a political statesman as well.
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