Justin Langer just had his first ever stint in India as the head coach of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the IPL 2024 and revealed that he couldn’t believe the level of MS Dhoni fandom in the tournament. He also commented on the hero worship in Indian cricket.
MS Dhoni, who retired from international cricket in 2020, has continued to play in the IPL and since then, has won titles in 2021 and 2023 as captain while playing only IPL. MS Dhoni was the flavour of this IPL season, and even though the great man could not get a fairytale ending with CSK failing to make the IPL 2024 playoffs.
If the fanbase and the fandom of MSD were not already enough, his commitment to the team’s cause this year took that adoration to the next level. Everywhere CSK went to play their away games, the yellow army was present in full support and made CSK feel as if they were playing a home game.
For Justin Langer, the phenomenon of MS Dhoni was something he could not make sense of. He had witnessed hero worship in India before as a player playing against Sachin Tendulkar, but this time around, experiencing the Dhoni fandom was ‘unbelievable’ for the former Australian coach.
“It’s extraordinary. I heard about it first; then we played them [CSK] twice. They came to Lucknow, and our capacity crowd [in Ekana Stadium] is about 50,000, and honestly, there would have been 48,000 MS Dhoni number seven shirts. I couldn’t believe it, and then we went to CSK, and there wasn’t 98%; there was 100%. And it’s unbelievable. The hero worship in India is unbelievable,” said Langer on BBC podcast.
“And look, I felt it when we played in India before as a player, particularly with Sachin Tendulkar. Then, when I was coaching with [Australia], Virat Kohli, and MS Dhoni, But, when you get over there, it’s unbelievable,” he added.
Langer also mentioned that there is a flip side to the hero worship as well, and he witnessed that also this IPL with Hardik Pandya, the new Mumbai Indians, getting booed by the Indian crowd.
“And I saw the flip side of it as well because Rohit Sharma is a huge hero in India as India captain. And what happened with Mumbai Indians this year… Hardik Pandya took over as the captain from Rohit Sharma. The much-loved Rohit Sharma. And it was really sad to watch.
You know, he got booed every game by the Indian crowds. He’s the vice-captain of the Indian T20I squad. So, I saw both sides of it. I learned this from Jonty Rhodes and Morne Morkel, who’d been to the IPL before. Rather than getting upset by it, go with the flow,” added Langer.
LSG failed to make it into the playoffs in the IPL 2024.
