In the quaint of ICT, where friendships bloomed like wildflowers in spring, a subtle shift began to unravel the bond between a group of close-knit friends. It all started with fleeting glances of discontent and hushed whispers behind closed doors, as insecurities and hidden resentments crept into the once unbreakable circle of camaraderie. Little did they know, their journey would lead them to back to square. From strangers to close friends to strangers again.
Indian Cricket Team is not just a team it's a family. They laugh, cry, celebrate, grieve together. Their bond is sacred, it started with dada and everyone since then has followed the legacy. Ms has taken special care of this thing as his dada wished to see the team as one. From captaining his seniors to his teammates and then juniors, Ms had to go through all the transition. It wasn't easy to captain his seniors like sachin, sehwag since he always used to practice infront of raina to make sure he doesn't sound strict, rude or like a captain. He always feared that he'll upset/hurt them in any way. He was also careful with his teammates too so that no one feels that he is being authorative or ordering them, whenever he used to tell them to do something like field position changing or bowling he used suggesting tone or requesting. Though yuvi, sonu, and him used to make captaincy jokes but he never used that with others. He loved all his relationships dearly, for him his brothers, his friends were the real trophy. He respected them, loved them, cared for them and they also did the same for him till they were part of the team. MS's biggest fear became true the day one by one his brothers whom he loved from all his heart started accusing him, showing their displeasure in front of the world rather than clearing with him.
People thought Ms and Gambhir had issues because of Gambhir' s statements on him especially about the world cup 11's "man of the match" title but it was different. Gambhir and Ms always shared that kind of relationship. No it wasn't bitter or strained, it's just both's nature. One side ms was colder than ice while gambhir was fire, Ms always used to talk to in calm and sweet tone while gambhir had a rough voice and he never bothered about his tone, sounds rude or not, none of his business. Dravid said that a captain and vice captain's relationship is like husband-wife's needs better tuning to be successful and in this side ms and gambhir had Saas-Bahu relation(Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law) yet they had the tuning to make their team achieving victory in every match. Gambhir's statement never bothered ms as he is aware of his personality no matter how rude he sounds he never crosses the boundary line, never lets anyone badmouth the country or the players when they play for India, criticizes but never insults and most importantly he never carries the statement in his heart. He gets questioned about something, he answers and drops the matter then and there, he never bring that afterwards.
It's not easy to hurt Ms. He had seen people abusing him infront of his house, burning his posters, commenting ill about him everywhere from articles to news channels, he has faced all the hatred with his smile. He never complained to anyone, never blamed anyone. Only his loved ones can hurt him and that's the reason he was never bothered about gambhir's interviews, as they were definitely friends but not that close. But he was definitely hurt by his other friends who claimed to be his good friends. He felt his nightmare turning into reality. His brothers were directly/indirectly got hurt by him, maybe his words or actions made them upset but why did they go infront of media to express their anger, displeasure. No he wasn't worried about his reputation being tarnished or image getting spoiled but he was sad as they could have come to him and told him, confront him for his decisions, scold him wherever they felt he went wrong but they chose to not even give him a chance to explain. Was he that bad? He couldn't even keep the family together that dada has asked him to do, he is such a failure.
It happened again and again, sehwag, harbhajan, irfan and yuvraj they said it directly, indirectly, first they excluded him from the pictures and then from their lives. It hurt ms like anything. He valued all his relationships and friendship is such a relationship that he literally worships. As he believes that whatever he is today because of his friends support. They left no stone unturned to fulfil his dream of playing for India. The comments of Ajit Agarkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Yograj Singh, Mohinder Amarnath, Gautam Gambhir never effected him as their comments never mattered to him, the people whom he accepted as a friend, why did they turned their back on him? And yuvraj like his yuvi? His best friend? The same person who went against his own father not once but many times is suddenly accusing him for his and their seniors early career exits? How could he? He knew mahi inside out, his biggest fears still he chose this path to show his anger? He was most hurt by yuvi's behavior.
