It has been nearly six years since he walked away from international cricket but retirement from the Indian Premier League (IPL) might not be imminent for the legendary MS Dhoni, who wants to enjoy playing cricket like a “child”.
The 43-year-old former captain, who led India to World Cup wins in 2011 (ODI) and 2007 (T20) along with the Champions Trophy triumph in 2013, last played for India in July 2019.
While Dhoni called time to his international career in August 2020, he continues to feature in the IPL for Chennai Super Kings who retained him ahead of the mega auction last year.
He will now play as an uncapped player, having spent more than five years as a retired player from international cricket.
“I’ve retired since 2019, so it will be quite some time. What I’ve been doing in the meantime is just wanting to enjoy cricket for the last, whatever few years I will be able to play,” Dhoni said on Wednesday during the launch of his app.
“I want to enjoy it, how I did as a child when I was in school. When I lived in a colony, 4 p.m. was sports time, so we’d go and play cricket more often than not.
“But if the weather doesn’t permit, we used to play football. I want to play with the same kind of innocence… (but it is) easier said than done,” he added.
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Dhoni said as an India player his focus was always to give his best for the country and everything else came second.
“For me as a cricketer, I always wanted to perform for the Indian cricket team because I’ve said that in the past also, that not everybody gets a chance to represent the country,” he said.
“For us as cricketers, whenever we went on to the big stage or whenever we were touring, there was a chance for us to win laurels for the country and so for me, it was the country that always came first.”