And so it has begun.

Until yesterday a born leader, a man with the Midas touch, a talisman whose mere presence ensured success in far away lands — from South Africa to Australia, Sri Lanka to New Zealand — is today the villain of the piece.

Arrogant, brash, disconnected from reality, he’s gone and lost India the World T20 championship by fighting with his team mates, taking digs at the media, scoring nothing off his own bat, and promoting greenhorns to critical positions in must-win matches.

It is incredible how strongly India feels about its cricketing heroes, the passion behind each argument fierce and unwavering. This week, for the first time in his dream career, the guns have been trained on Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The media seems determined to make up for all the praise showered on him in the last five years as an international cricketer, and last two as skipper, even asking if he “looked sorry enough” when he was apologising to fans after the World T20 exit. “Please SMS your opinion...”

His captaincy has been dissected, his mistakes magnified, his effigies burnt (it sounds like a pretty good job in India, making effigies — income guaranteed, even in times of recession). Not because we enjoy parading on the streets with banners and torches but because our national pride (which, 62 years after independence, rides on which side of a three-run result we finish on) has been hurt.

Here’s a quick dossier on how Dhoni wounded our dignity over the last 20 months:

... contd.