I respect Dhoni much more after he showed guts in blaming partying for poor performance in the World Cup T20 Tournament. It is not just that you lose sleep partying night after night after the end of the game- your focus is not what it should be.
"Most of the players were fit and fresh. Players also need to be smart, not only about cricket but about other things going around in the IPL. We have to respect your body and give some time for it to recover because there is more to it than playing matches. Attending parties and travelling takes a toll," Dhoni said after India's five-wicket loss against Sri Lanka on Tuesday that knocked them out of the event."
T20 WC debacle: We must not party too hard, says M S Dhoni
I am no admirer of IPL, as you might know. I think T20 is a terribly skewed format, and by insisting that every team should have four world class performers and four local performers- BCCI has made cricket look silly.
If you are not convinced, this is what Saurav Ganguly said,
"“The IPL is a domestic tournament and the standard is much lower than a world event where you are up against quality batsmen and bowlers. Some of the players have got a lot of opportunities, but have not delivered. They have been around for quite a while and the entire country wants performances from them,” said Ganguly."
- IPL an excuse, players weren’t good enough: Ex-captainsThis is the man who qualifies in an Indian XV, chosen by TOI based on T20 performances this year:
TOI’s XV for World T20 based on IPL 3 form
Sachin Tendulkar, Murali Vijay, Sourav Ganguly, Saurabh Tiwary (specialist top order batsmen), Zaheer Khan, Ashok Dinda, Siddharth Trivedi, R Vinay Kumar (seamers), Harbhajan Singh (lone specialist spinner), Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan (batting allrounders), MS Dhoni, Robin Uthappa (wicketkeeper-batsmen)
But then, anyway, Dhoni doesn't party, it seems- he says he never did it during IPL.
Dhoni is good.
