Captain Dhoni, try to lead by example

It just gets worse. Cricket administrators have been shown up as a group of conniving status quoists — as these columns have repeatedly argued. Now, as this paper’s investigation establishes, India’s cricket captain has serious conflict of interest issues to answer. Plainly put, you cannot be a captain — at national and club level — and, therefore, a judge of players’ performances and also run firms that market some of those players. You don’t need to know what a googly is to know this justly invites all kinds of imputations on MS Dhoni’s motives. If Indian cricket was different, the board would have never allowed such an arrangement. But presumably for cricket administrators, Dhoni’s business arrangements look fine. Dhoni is a talented cricketer whose quick rise to stardom and captaincy was read as an almost inspirational national story: the talented, tough, small-town boy who symbolised a larger trend of non-metro India making its presence felt nationally.

The Dhoni story and the larger story are obviously not invalidated by the captain’s off-field conduct. But, equally, we have to ask whether in cricket or commerce or politics, the welcome churn that happened because of small-town talent has also engendered even less respect for proper conduct than is the norm. This may sound politically incorrect. However, no one is saying metros and established classes haven’t produced dodgy characters. Just that the otherwise heartwarming broad-basing of talent has perhaps added disproportionately to the dodginess. So what should Dhoni do? Simply saying his stake in the firm has been liquidated is not enough. He should resign his captaincy and offer himself as a player who should be selected on merit. What will he do? Probably nothing. What will the board do? Why even ask?