Dhoni's courageous decision to rest shows his self-confidence

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's decision to rest instead of touring Sri Lanka is a brave one indeed. Not many players would risk the possibility of the replacement making a permanent place while they are away, and it speaks volumes of Dhoni's self-confidence.

It takes a man of real conviction to say that he is no good if he is mentally and physically unable to give 100 per cent to the country's team.

There are many instances of players hiding injuries to stay in the tour party, enjoy the perks of being in the squad and in the past few years, we have seen that happening too often to the team's detriment.

When a team goes overseas, unless the player is going to be available for the first Test or first ODI, he should not be included as it spoils the balance of the team.

Dhoni's decision has got the backing of the selectors, who have called it a mature one and it marks a change in attitude over the years. Way back in the 70s, if a player made himself unavailable to play for the country, he was looked down as a traitor of sorts and pilloried by everybody.

'Tiger' Pataudi not making himself available for the tours to West Indies and England in 1971 did not top the popularity list of decisions, though a section of the media supported him because they thought that he had been unfairly removed as captain of the team. Tiger played under Ajit Wadekar, who had replaced him as skipper in the home series against England. But when India lost all three Tests of the 1974 tour of England, which too Pataudi had refused to undertake, Wadekar was dropped as skipper and retired from Test cricket and Tiger was reappointed captain.

In the late 70s, India had played Test cricket virtually non-stop from September 1978, when it played Pakistan for the first time in 18 years. That was followed with six home Tests against the West Indies, and the long England tour, which also included the World Cup, right after that.

Within a week after England, the team was playing six Test matches against the Australians, followed by Pakistan's six-Test tour of India and a Test against England to mark the golden jubilee of the BCCI. A couple of days later, the team was to fly to the Caribbeanfor a five-Test series.

The Indian team knew that the Pakistan series was going to drain them physically as well as mentally, and so, wanted the tour to West Indies postponed by a week to be able to recharge their batteries. It was left to me as the skipper of the team to request the BCCI postpone the tour. The suggestion was that instead of the four first-class matches the team was to play before the first Test, at least one could be dropped to give the team some time to relax.

It was understandable that the players wanted the first class games to be dropped because these were the most dangerous to play from the physical point of view. Though the West Indies had a truly formidable pace attack, there were several others waiting in the wings to break in to the squad. For them, a game against the visiting side was the one where they could show their stuff. Moreover, the pitches for these games were not of the same standard as the Test pitches.

In those days, there was a rest day in Test matches, so on one such day in the third Test at Kanpur, I approached the then BCCI President and asked if the departure of the team to the Caribbean Isles could be delayed. There was plenty of time since the tour was scheduled for third week of February and I was asking the President in early October. The President flatly refused after I explained the team's position, and refused to even explore the possibility by writing to the West Indies Board. Instead, he said there were 5,000 other players waiting to play for India.

If that was the stand, I told him I would not be available for the tour and would be happy to stand down as the captain and player from the next Test. He said that selection was not his domain, but I said that in all fairness, the selectors should be informed of my decision conveyed to him.

At the selection meeting that took place at the end of that Test to pick the team for the next one, I did inform the selectors and said there could be a few more who would be unavailable to tour the West Indies if the tour was not delayed by a week at least. They suggested that the Honourary Secretary take it up with the BCCI and that I should concentrate on the cricket, which is exactly what I did.

We won that series, as well as that against Pakistan but it was tough to keep the concentration going. Since there had been no word from the BCCI about the postponement of the tour, as soon as we took an unbeatable lead in the series against Pakistan, I announced that since I was unavailable for the West Indies tour, I was resigning as skipper so that the new captain could get some experience. Predictably, there was a huge furore and plenty of criticism, including from those who were defending Pataudi a few years earlier when he had no reasons like physical and mental exhaustion. The reaction to Dhoni's decision looks a lot more mature. They seem to have appreciated his honesty in not playing on if he was mentally and physically tired. By the way, the West Indies board cancelled the 1980 tour after Kapil also pulled out with a knee injury.