On a day when Mahendra Singh Dhoni should have been applauded by the crowd for crossing the 10,000-run mark in One Day Internationals, he was instead booed for his slow batting during the team’s 86-run defeat against England in the second game of the three-match series at the Lord’s ground.

The booing happened because Dhoni, always hailed as one of India’s best match-finishers, could not live up to their expectation.

Dhoni’s fans might argue that people must not forget the many matches he won for India through his ability as a world-class finisher. Those who booed may justify that in the past couple of years, he has struggled to finish in a number of high pressure games. The fact of the matter remains that at the age of 37, it isn’t easy to replicate with ease what he had been doing regularly in the past.

When a cricketer takes up the challenge to play beyond 37, he must also be prepared to accept reactions like these when he fails to deliver.

Like cricket pitches that behave differently in certain conditions, fans too do the same.

The mindset of cricket fans has also changed over the years, and only a victory for their team can give them joy.

Most fans today are so demanding that when an expert finisher or hard hitter struggles for runs, the wave of criticism overshadows his past deeds. Sachin Tendulkar too experienced the same fate. When Tendulkar the ‘Master Blaster’ was not being able to blast bowlers like in the past, he was mocked by fans and sometimes addressed as ‘Endulkar’.

Indian captain Virat Kohli has hit out at the fans — stating that it was wrong of them to come to any conclusion on Dhoni and pounce on him when things did not go well. Kohli must be well aware of what happened to Tendulkar and before that to Kapil Dev who struggled to get wickets towards the end. Not everyone can be a Sunil Gavaskar, or a Kumar Sangakkara or a AB De Villiers and retire at their peak.

Debates on whether a player should retire or not starts only when he plays beyond the threshold of retiring age and fails to deliver.

A match winning knock from Dhoni in the next match could transform the same booing fans to cheer for him.

Cricketers like Sangakkara did not give fans that chance, and walked away making them wonder why he had retired. Some retire saying it is time for youngsters waiting in the wings to open their chapter by stepping into his shoes. Cricketers are not like sprinters for whom the wake-up call is when opponents beat them in their race. Fans will only applaud success and not failures, and cricketers must accept this truth.