It is not new to hear reports of angry mob pelting stones at cricketers' houses - not in India at least. Yuvraj Singh's 21-ball 11 outraged fans and he has been held responsible for India's defeat to Sri Lanka in the final of the 2014 World T20 on Sunday.
India could put up only a meagre total of 130 on the board, thanks to some incredible death bowling from Sri Lanka, who then went on to chase down the target with ease.
"Nobody wants to really play bad cricket," MS Dhoni, the losing captain, said. "In front of 40,000 people you don't really want to drop a catch or misfield. It's part and parcel of the game. And we have seen it happen to some of the international athletes, not just cricketers. Let's get rid of it.
"Yuvi tried his best, it was an off day for him, at the same time it is not easy for a batsman to go out there and start slogging."
But no matter what Dhoni said, more questions were thrown at him about Yuvraj's performance.
"The thing is he was trying. That is the most you can do," Dhoni replied. "It's a team thing, let's not talk about individuals," Dhoni wanted to end the fuss. His words hardly took any effect.
"I can tell you one thing, you talk about the anger of the fans and all, you know it's always the individual who is more disappointed than the fans," Dhoni added. "As a player you go through more because you have your expectations and everything else. So I think that's not the statement you should talk about. Yes, fans get angry but you should also think about the individual."
Dhoni's captaincy skills have been questioned in the Test format but not in the shorter versions of the game because he has produced the results when it mattered. However, many wondered if Suresh Raina should have been sent ahead of Yuvraj Singh at no.4.
"We only have one - somebody like Suresh Raina who can go in and really start hitting from the very first ball," Dhoni said. "Most of the other batsmen like to spend a bit of time and then play the big shots. That's the reason why we want Yuvi at 4 and then Suresh Raina at 5. And also in this game what happened was, two right-handers were batting at that point of time [Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli]. So you wanted a left-right combination to make it difficult for the bowlers to execute their plans. And that was the reason why we had Yuvi at 4. After that we wanted to keep a left-right combination. But the last two overs, I said let me go [ahead of Raina] and try something."
There has been more questions of course, now about Yuvraj's future in T20 cricket. He scored 100 runs in the tournament, and the 60 against Australia convinced everyone that he is coming back in form and would help India win the tournament. Which was not to be.
"It is a big day, so let's not talk about selection because, effectively our season ends now. We go into domestic cricket with the IPL. So let's not talk about selection as of now, we'll see when it comes."
(Edited by Vishnuprasad S Pillai)
