MyVoice: Views of our readers 19th August 2020

We will miss you, Mr Dhoni!

India's star wicket keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni bid adieu to International cricket on Independence Day. With this, his long and distinguished career came to an end. While chasing targets in international cricket, Dhoni kept his cards closed to his chest many a times. Similarly, till Independence Day night, he kept his fans and critics guessing till he made an announcement of his retirement. Dhoni, widely known as MS to all cricket lovers and Mahi 'bai' to his fellow cricketers, retires as most successful captain in limited over international career, having won three ICC trophies - 2007 T20 World Cup, most coveted 50 over World Cup (the title which Sachin Tendulkar cherishes as great achievement in his career) and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. He took Indian cricket team on top of test rankings. Who will forget his calm presence behind the stumps and electrifying speed in making stump outs? Without prior announcement and without formal press conference, Dhoni hung his boots from international career, true to his own style, symbolising his personality with an announcement through Twitter. We will sure miss those helicopter services (helicopter shots) in future. What else we can do, the cricket lovers of India, except wishing the Ranchi man good luck in his future 2nd innings!

V Nagendra Kumar, R K Puram, Hyderabad

A cricketer par excellence!

M S Dhoni created new records as stumper, skipper and well-versed batsman and stole the hearts of many cricket lovers across the globe. His scoring of around 5,000 runs in test cricket with a double century speaks volumes of his passion for the royal game, thus joining the galaxy of idols of cricket world. Also, his appearance in as many 90 Tests for India is exemplary that he had sweated hard and showed patience enough to quench his sportsman's thirst. Dhoni scripted the apt role of skipper suitable for One Day cricket where stamina and patience play key roles. His achievements prove he was an able batsman with guts to test opponent sternly. Some of his victories registered against mighty OZ, South Africa and arch-rival Pakistan will be remembered forever in the cricket world. Dhoni played the captain's role perfectly in the finals, salvaging India from an insecure position to wrap up India's second ODI World Cup. His young at heart attitude helped beat England in the final of the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy to make Dhoni the first men's captain to win all three ICC tournaments. Kudos to M S Dhoni for his remarkable achievements.

Raju Kolluru, Kakinada, AP

Media should play a constructive role

Media is considered as the fourth pillar democracy. Its main responsibility is to protect the rights and privileges of public and it ought to be a mirror to the society. In early days of advancement, media had been informative, apart from playing a crucial role in development of a civilised society. Over a few years, it has changed. In the lust of Television Rating Point (TRP), it has surpassed all the limits in misguiding the society. Nowadays, most of its contents involve caste, religion, reservation and all other things which are further dividing the masses and weakening the society. As competitive market emerged in the electronic media, news channels are now more concentrating on their TRPs. They come with different subjects to create interest in viewers, sometimes are true and sometimes gossip. This creates a miscommunication and confusion among the people on various issues. People get influenced by the media and they often come under wrong conclusions about the government, religion, caste and many other issues. So, media should consider this and work more towards forceless and free coverage of news and help building a better society.

M N Musaeed, Mumbai

Save Kashmiris from institutional torment

Kashmir valley is one of the well-known places in the world that attracts tourists in large numbers. But now, it has gotten worse since Article 370 and 35a have been abrogated from the Constitution of India which provided Special Status for Jammu and Kashmir compared to the other regions of the country. It should be kept in mind that Kashmir's performance in every part of life – be it economy, education or jobs - had been better than any other State in India. The development dream shown by the BJP during the removal of Article 370 was a mirage, because a year after the annexation of Kashmir, the socio-economy has gotten worse. According to reports, Kashmir's economy has incurred losses of up $5.3 billion and more than 1,00,000 people became unemployed. I firmly appeal to the intelligentsia to remember human history and try to protect people of Kashmir from brutality and support them by raising your voices against this cruelty.

Mohd Adnan, Bijnor, UP