Hyderabad: All is not well between cricketing biggies Ravichandran Ashwin and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. So it seems after Captain Cool’s fans trolled the ICC Cricketer of the Year on social media for not thanking his ex-captain in a speech he posted on the Indian Cricket Team’s Facebook page on Thursday.
Shantanu Sharma termed Ashwin snobbish. “He is trying to ignre the man bcz of whm his career started and flourished.. I m ashwin’s fan but ths is arrogance (sic),” he wrote on @shantanu224.
Ashwin’s comments have not gone down too well with people close to the former Test captain as well. Dhoni’s first coach Chanchal Bhattacharya had this to say: “R. Ashwin has played lot of cricket with Dhoni not only in Tests and ODIs but also in the IPL and it was not right on Ashwin’s part to thank Dhoni only once in his speech.”
“Ashwin established himself in the team under Dhoni and he should have recognised this fact in the speech,” felt Kajal Das, another coach of Dhoni’s.
Dhoni’s close friend Sanjay Pande thought it wouldn’t make a difference. “The world knows how Mahi (Dhoni) was supportive of him all these years. It doesn’t matter,” he said.
Chintu Lohani, another friend of Dhoni’s, echoed similar sentiments. “Dhoni’s value as a cricketer will not diminish just because Ashwin has not thanked him,” he said.
Ashwin’s drifter could well be subtle retaliation to Dhoni not making public comments congratulating the Test team for its recent successes. Ashwin and Dhoni may have played together but there have been traces of tension between the two. One such instance was when Ashwin expressed his desire to bat up the order after hitting his third Test century, against the West Indies, in July this year.
“I’ve always wanted to bat in the top seven... I need to thank Anil Kumble and Virat (Kohli) for having the confidence in me to be pushed at number six. There have been times in the past when I’ve played really well and haven’t really got the promotion,” he said at the post match press conference in Antigua.
(Inputs: Bipin Dani)
