The IPL team Chennai Super Kings may have got knocked out of the tournament after losing their last league match to Royal Challengers Bangalore but still everyone, from fans to former cricketers, are busy making speculations regarding the future of MS Dhoni in the IPL.
While there are many who firmly believe that this was the last season of MS Dhoni as a player, few are of the opinion that Mahi can return for one more time as in the IPL 2024, he smashed huge sixes and he has certainly some more cricket left in him.
There are reports that MS Dhoni was suffering from muscle tear during the IPL 2024 and he kept on playing despite doctors asking him to take rest and this has increased the admiration for Thala among his fans. There is no denying the fact that Dhoni enjoys a huge fan base and this time people came to see him in stadiums in huge numbers wherever CSK went to play a match because they didn’t want to miss the chance of watching MS Dhoni on the field in action for the last time.
India is a cricket crazy nation and fans worship their favourite cricketer as hero but the head coach of Lucknow Super Giants, Justin Langer finds this concept of “hero worship” difficult to understand and believe. The first time IPL coach, Justin Langer was not able to make sense of Dhoni phenomenon despite the fact that he has seen hero worship in India earlier as well during the times of Sachin Tendulkar but Dhoni fandom is unbelievable for him.
While speaking in a podcast, Justin Langer called it extraordinary and said that he heard about it first and then he witnessed it when LSG played against CSK twice. Justin said that when CSK came to Lucknow, there were 48,000 number seven Dhoni shirts in the stadium which has the capacity of 50,000 and when they went to Chennai, it was not 98 percent but 100 percent stadium filled with MS Dhoni number seven t-shirts and it was unbelievable.
He further added that though he witnessed hero worship in India during the times of Sachin Tendulkar and also at the time when he was coaching Australia as Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni are big players but what he saw this time is unbelievable.
Justin Langer also talked about the flip side of hero worship and for this, he gave the example of new skipper of Mumbai Indians, Hardik Pandya. Justin Langer stated that Rohit Sharma is a big hero in India and he is also the skipper of the Indian team but when MI replaced him with Hardik Pandya, the new skipper was booed by crowds wherever they went to play a match.
Justin Langer said that he has seen both the aspects of hero worship and he has learnt from Jhonty Rhodes and Morne Morkel (as they both have been to the IPL before) that rather than getting upset, it is better to go with the flow.
Justin Langer’s name was also doing rounds for the post of the new head coach of team India but he has made it clear that he has no intention of taking up the job.
What do you think of hero worship in India? Share your views with us.
