Former Australia opener Matthew Hayden thinks Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the “magician” who can turn someone else’s “trash into treasure”. Hayden also said that the former India captain’s unmatched contribution to the CSK success story makes his playing future with the franchise “almost irrelevant”.
“MS is a magician. He takes someone else’s trash and makes them treasure. He is a very skilful and positive captain. He said something really interesting which I thought summed up not only his humility and his truth around cricket where he is represented and that is in Tamil Nadu Cricket Association,” Hayden said.
“The alignment between that association and the franchise, how strong that is in terms of building that process. To me, that is MS. There is a systematic way of going through things and working through them. He did that for India and he is doing it for Chennai Super Kings.
“Whether he plays or not next year it is almost irrelevant. Personally, I don’t think he will, but then he is MS Dhoni,” Hayden said.
The 51-year-old Australian thinks that the rise of T20 cricket around the world has made it difficult for players to play all formats of the game and has also rendered the future of 50-over cricket uncertain.
“The time of three-format players is shortly coming to an end. It would challenge the game around the world… whether those formats are even viable anymore.
“It seems to me there is great enthusiasm still to play Test cricket and the World Test Championship is a good example of that. Otherwise, I see a lot of T20 cricket being played.
“It is inevitable that kids of tomorrow, they want to play sport, they want to play franchise cricket. We have seen a number of players, especially from marginalised communities, cricketers from the West Indies for example, they are getting very active in other sports and poached to other sports because of their magnificent athletic ability. The great fall from grace from the beautiful sides of the 80s.
“Someone like Nicholas Pooran for example. Has he really got any interest in playing Test match cricket? Before him Dwayne Bravo played a bit of Test cricket but mostly played franchise cricket all over the world.
“There are hundreds of examples like that. From Australia, someone like David Warner… Is he going to be focused on Test cricket now or is he going to play the remainder of his career (in T20s)?
“It is always going to be challenging where there is enormous amount of money to be made. It is going to happen and all of it should be embraced,” Hayden said.