Nepal won't dilute ODI standards, says MS Dhoni

Former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Friday congratulated Paras Khadka’s Nepal cricket team for attaining qualification for the ODI status. Nepal secured this prestigious position on Thursday after beating Papua New Guinea at the ICC World Cup qualifiers 2018 in Harare.

Citing it as a big achievement, Dhoni said the new-found status is likely to transform how cricket is played and administered in Nepal. MS Dhoni, who is currently in Lucknow on a business trip, said he had met the Nepalese players during a visit to country a few years ago and found them to be hard-working.

Even though the majority of the cricket fraternity welcomed achievements like these and the progress made by associate nations, there is a chunk that believes that their quality of cricket is not up to the mark. However, Dhoni disagress and insists that despite their bench strength being weak, Nepal’s ODI status is a welcome move.

“Its (ODI status) a result of their hard-work and sincere effort. I don’t think that participation of small teams will dilute the standard of cricket the world over,” Dhoni said.

“Bench strength of teams like Nepal might not be that good, but sport is for enjoyment and people in Nepal will now look to improve and compete with international teams.”

“To make cricket a global sport, I believe more and more such teams must come into fray, and it is good that Associate nations are trying to gain ICC’s ODI status,” said Dhoni, as reported by HT.

He said that Afghanistan was a classic example of how a nation can get better as a competitive international cricket team, saying “Consistency is important and that’s why teams like UAE after playing some good cricket for a good time period, lost their way.”

No workload issues

On the issue of workload on Indian cricketers, Dhoni said that after quitting Test cricket, he was enjoying his time with ODIs and T20 cricket and there was no pressure of workload on him. Indian captain Virat Kohli had earlier this week admitted that too much cricket was affecting the body.

Dhoni, who was rested from the ongoing Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka, will return to action when the Indian Premier League kicks off on April 7. He will be seen leading the Chennai Super Kings after two years. Kohli, too, will return to competitive cricket with the IPL where he will be leading Royal Challengers Bangalore.