“I just want to enjoy the last few years of cricket I can play,” Dhoni mentioned at a promotional tournament in Goa. “Like when during our childhood we went out to play at 4[pm]just enjoying the game. But when you play a professional sport it is difficult to enjoy the game as if it were a game. “So what I want to do is there are emotions and commitments, but I want to enjoy the game for years to come.”
“My thought was simple: if others are doing their job well, why do I have to move up the order?” Dhoni mentioned. “If we talk specifically about last year (season), the team for the T20 World Cup was going to be announced soon. So we have to give a chance to the people who are fighting for a place. In our team (CSK) we had a few, [Ravindra] Jadeja was there, Shivam Dube was there, so you give them a chance to prove themselves and get into the Indian team. There was nothing for me, no selection and other things. So I’m well behind [playing down the order] and my team was happy with what I was doing.
Dhoni: “I love how groups are enjoying exams now”
“You can give cricket whatever term you want, what we have seen is that cricket has evolved,” mentioned Dhoni. “The way people play cricket is very different. There was a time when something in ODIs was considered a sure score, now that score is not a sure score in T20s either.
“You give something a period of time, it becomes a lot more interesting when you start talking about it, you start relating to it, but at the end of the event, what is it? It’s a way of playing cricket. Some families want play competitive cricket games, some families want to play original cricket games. A package of that is determined by the type of staff you have, whether or not they can alternate the best way to play cricket. The impressive thing is understanding the energy of your. and, in tune with the energy of the staff, make a decision on what is the best way you want to play cricket, but it surely takes time. “You want to introduce them to people because they have played possibly 10-12-15 years of cricket and they have a set way of playing cricket, so you need to introduce them to that generation to change.”
Dhoni said there were some “complicated” days when he was playing Tests, especially when he knew the match was heading towards a draw.
“For me, the most difficult moment during a Test match was the fifth moment of a match, which is the most extreme moment when you knew 100% it would be a draw,” he said. “I would still like to book for almost 2.5 sessions and that was the most tiring phase. You see there is no result, you are just going through the motions. Yes, the bowlers need to pick up the wickets, the batsmen will struggle.” to achieve careers, [but] There is no result within the contest. You think let’s get this over with and move on, why should I be here? So I love the fact that there are alternatives in the way teams enjoy cricket.
“Imagine telling someone who doesn’t know much cricket that we play for five days and we start at 9.30 and 4.30 is the scheduled end of the game, we play until 5.[pm] Sometimes, after five days we don’t get any results. That’s not good for the game. That’s why I love how there are more results in the world today. Even if we play only four days of cricket and one day is eliminated, you still get a result; that is the beauty of Test cricket and that is how it should remain; “You want to get a result after five days and you shouldn’t have a tie.”
