Of the various attributes that has gone into the making of Mahendra Singh Dhoni—the captain cool, the finisher exemplaire, the man for crisis—silence isn’t one. And by embracing silence, at a time when the sport’s credibility has taken a severe beating—Dhoni has complicated things.
Explaining silence is among the most speculative exercises in life, though interpreting it is as convenient as it comes. So how would you interpret his silence? The popular, and the immediate, notion was that he was gagged by the BCCI, though the president stoutly refutes it. “No one has gagged anyone. But the press conference was meant for the Champions Trophy. So it was natural that Dhoni answered questions related to it, “ he maintained.
But the president also threw in a tricky clause in the BCCI rule-book. “It doesn’t have a clause that curbs free speech. We have a code of conduct for the players and they must adhere to team discipline. They can work or speak within the guidelines,” he pointed out. So is a player’s freedom of speech, a constitutional guarantee, mortgaged when he signs the BCCI contract?
If so, Dhoni has to keep wearing the denial costume as long as India’s campaign lasts in England, for it is mandatory for him to address the press before every match, as per the ICC guidelines. And the media, both Indian and international, would keep hounding him with these same questions.
Though Dhoni is usually unflappable, beyond a time he might feel techy or peevish, and the focus might gradually waver. The last thing India want in a knockout tournament is a skipper who feels tired. Then there is the usual realm of assumptions and implications, the world of conjecture, a dangerously vituperative proposition.
But just think otherwise. Had Dhoni addressed the issue, as genuinely as he usually does, he needn’t have carried the fear of being harangued by the media throughout the tournament. His mind would have been considerably freer each time he walks into the press conference room. His words could have at least temporarily restored people’s faith in the game.
And now the scrutiny would be harsher on Dhoni. Though there isn’t the slightest hint of him being dragged into the spot-fixing scandal, everything he does would be dissected—every failed strategy would be vivisected and judgements would be spontaneously formed. And that at a time when Dhoni himself would be unsure of his colleagues’ integrity (no balls and wides would be met with a tinge of suspicion).