Sri Lanka's 1996 World Cup-winning coach Dav Whatmore believes that making any calls on MS Dhoni’s retirement is a bit unfair, saying people must keep in mind the legend’s contribution to Indian cricket before making such calls.
However, Whatmore, former Australian cricketer, admitted that the time has come for Dhoni to retire, but he must be allowed to go on his terms given his contribution to Indian cricket.
Whatmore told reporters in Chennai at an event on Tuesday, 26th July, “Calls for Dhoni’s retirement, I think it is a bit unfair. It is time for him to retire... but because he has done so much for India, he deserves the time to take the call.”
While expressing his surprise at the boundary count rule, former Zimbabwe coach was not really happy with World Cup 2016 result, saying the matter could have been handled better by sharing the trophy between England and New Zealand last week after both main and Super Over tied at Lord’s.
The Kerala coach further said, “There was no winner, so the trophy could have been shared. It would have been a fair reflection of both teams’ tenacity to win the Cup. It is a learning curve. These sorts of things could have been handled better, maybe have a re-match, I don’t know. Before the sides came to the tournament, they knew about it and that is the bottom line.”
Former Sri Lankan coach continued, “I wonder how many people knew about it at that time. Umpires are humans as well. One would argue the same point for other instances which happened in the past. It is unfortunate, it has happened. After two ties, there was not really a winner. But under the rules which the teams have signed on, it has got to go to England.”
Whatmore signed off by saying, “It is easy to sit here and come up with bits and pieces of rules that appear to be fairer. I have not heard of that (boundary count) rule before, run-rate I have. These things happen one in a million times, probably more than that.”
(With PTI Inputs)
