<
>

Dhoni to overturn other results

MS Dhoni has done away with his moustache on his birthday AFP

It has been revealed that MS Dhoni will overturn the World Cup final result, following his decision to overturn the appeal that saw Ian Bell run out in a somewhat controversial manner at Trent Bridge.

According to reports, Kumar Sangakkara, who was watching the match from his hotel room in Australia, thought it would be a good time to take advantage of the spirit of cricket and use Dhoni's good-heartedness to his advantage.

"Obviously we wanted to win the World Cup, but that didn't work out so well, so we thought we'd ask Dhoni if he would consider overturning the result of the World Cup," said Sangakkara. "He seems like a really generous bloke and he did let us redo the toss, so maybe he will let us win the World Cup. It's all in the spirit of the game, after all."

Following Dhoni's decision to recall Bell, there has been intense speculation that the India captain might be appointed the moral authority on all decisions that relate to the spirit of the game, and even replace the very controversial DRS as well as Hawk-Eye technology.

"Well, Dhoni is obviously the poster boy for all that is within the spirit of the game. Obviously we want to eliminate all controversy out of the game, so that desktop activists can stop bashing in their keyboards and using up all the space on the internet," said an ICC spokesperson. "And we also want cricket to go back to being boring like it used to be when teams used to play timeless Tests.

"We think replacing Hawk-Eye with Dhoni will be an excellent decision. Perhaps we can simply clone him and use the clones around the world to help us make decisions."

Aside from using Dhoni clones as a replacement for technology, the spokesman also said the ICC wanted Dhoni to help decide how much players should be fined for on-field misconduct. "Players like Stuart Broad, Peter Siddle, Sreesanth and Dale Steyn will all be sending Dhoni flowers and wearing Chennai Super Kings shirts in order to stay in his favour."

Whether Dhoni will be asked to overturn other decisions is not yet clear, but there is speculation that Ricky Ponting has made contact asking him to convince Andrew Strauss to overturn the results of the last two Ashes series.

"Strauss owes him one now. So he might be able to help us, although I'm not sure," Ponting said. "I'll probably have to break a television to help me with my decision."

Others speculate that Dhoni might be used to help the South African team overturn their decision to choke in every big match. With the next big tournament, the World Twenty20, less than a year away, whether Dhoni will be able to work his magic will remain to be seen.

When asked to comment on all his new possible career options and whether he would be able to accept any of them, Dhoni played coy.

"Well, of course it is flattering to be offered all of these things and it's really nice to know that they all think so highly of me, but I have to first focus on the task at hand, and that is making sure we stay the No. 1 Test side in the world, because I am not sure Strauss will be as good as me to overturn that decision."