Top 5 Dressing Room Rivalries in Indian Cricket

There are interesting rivalries in Indian cricket even amongst themselves. Not many of these have resulted well and these rivalries could hurt the spirit and coordination of the team. Such rivalries are quite rare but have been into Indian cricket team latest news. The dressing room is a place where all of the team members meet in the middle of the match when the innings are over. Teams assemble there and discuss the plan for the match. Strategies change in the middle of the match or the end of the game or it can happen at any time of the match since players keep evolving amid the match.

Plans are made before the match however they might not always work out. For example, they might have planned to counter a player and made plans for that specific player but if it is known just before the match that this player is not playing, they will just have to change their initial plans and will have to construct a new one so t is important for the whole team to think together and strategize and make a proper plan. However, the whole team must be in harmony and talk with no inhibitions and be free in their ideation.

However, if there is rivalry or disharmony between the players, it becomes tough for them to coordinate and synergize. Therefore, there shouldn’t be any rivalries between the players as they are playing for their respective teams and should not let their personal opinions pull the whole team apart. These sorts of fights mess with the whole team’s spirits and are dangerous if they occur during an important match. Although these shouldn’t happen, they do exist. 

In India where cricketers are revered and worshipped, this driving force makes them go beyond. However, such rivalries do exist in the so-called “Gentleman’s Game” and such things keep happening no matter how much people try to avoid them.

Let’s have a look at some of the dressing room rivalries of the Indian cricket team : 

• Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma: This might be a surprising one as these two have been the face of Indian cricket for quite some time. This started way back after the ICC 2019 ODI World Cup as the current Team India captain was unsatisfied with some of Kohli’s decisions and this caused a rift between them. This snowballed and their friendship wasn’t the same as before even though they might have patched up. Also, since Virat stepped down from the captaincy and Rohit took over, this didn’t seem very well. They both have maintained good relations till now.

• Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid: The BCCI President and the present coach of the Indian team used to have friendly relations that is until there occurred something that shook the very foundation of their friendship. Greg Chapell was said to reportedly use his power to take Sourav out of the captaincy position and appointed Dravid instead and even backed him. This caused their friendship to crumble and in the end, they have maintained friendly relations till now.

• Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid: This was one of the most famous incidents of dressing room rivalries which came to light. This occurred in Pakistan in 2004, when India was in a comfortable position at 675 runs at the loss of 5 wickets. Sachin and Dravid were at the crease and Sachin was closing in on his double century and was quite close to it, he was at 194 and needed just 6 more runs to close in and make another double century. However, to the surprise of everyone, Dravid declared the innings with no visible reason. This shocked everyone as he was a person who only decides after looking at all choices. After the game, Sachin mentioned that he was disappointed by that decision. This incident earned a mention in Sachin Tendulkar’s autobiography titled – ‘Playing It my Way’.

• Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohammad Azharuddin: This is one of the oldest rivalries and it started in 1989. During the West Indies tour, India got whitewashed and lost the test series 4-0 and went on to lose even the ODI series by a disappointing 5-0. During the tour, both of these players were shouting taunts at each other since Azhar was getting out cheaply and was playing terrible shots, these factors built up and created this rivalry. Although it was in the olden era, it still lives on in the minds of cricketing fans.

• Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar: These are the faces of Indian cricket seniors, how could they be in such a trivial thing? Yes, it did occur back in 1984 when England toured India. This was also one of the years when Kapil Dev was at his zenith in his cricketing career. This happened when in the third test, Kapil Dev was completely dropped from the match. Although in the previous match, he did play a reckless shot which was rare, it angered some of the team as well as the selection committee. Kapil Dev alleged that Sunil Gavaskar had a part to play in that, however in 2001, Sunil Gavaskar denied any such action that he had taken.

Conclusion: Rivalries aren’t very common but when they do occur, the best thing to do is to destroy them in the roots. Not many rivalries exist in the world of cricket however when even the smallest of fights occur, it always comes to light since things do happen and people tend to reveal such things. However, they try to hide such things, but they cannot always remain hidden and it becomes common knowledge to people.

These things will keep happening no matter how much they try to avoid it since the conflict of interest is in the list of things that humans tend to have, also these rivalries aren’t always visible in the match as they can suppress their feelings in front of the crowd but in the dressing room? It always comes to light in there and such kinds of rifts occur. 

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