MS Dhoni bats for district-level cricket for budding young cricketers

MS Dhoni has scaled constant success across cricket, starting from his grassroots level. Consequently, he has backed district-level cricket, which plays a pivotal role in a cricketer's upbringing.

Image credit: PTI

As far as MS Dhoni is concerned, he has given utmost importance to grassroots level cricket ever since he began his cricketing career. He has been subject to constant success in the said level of cricket before scaling the ladders of success at the international level. On the same note, he has stressed that young cricket must focus more on the grassroots level, especially the district-level cricket, as he feels that it plays a massive role in the upbringing of a cricketer. Recently, he happened to be the special guest during the Thiruvallur Cricket Association's 25-year-anniversary celebrations.

Speaking on the occasions, Dhoni stated, "Initially when I started playing cricket, the want, or the will was to score in that tournament. Why? Because you could represent your district. Why do you want to represent your district? So that when you play an inter-district tournament, and you do well, you are called for the selection trials for the state."

"And, I feel that is the urge that all you [young] cricketers need to have. And, what is very important is to be proud of the district you represent, because when we start playing cricket, you want to play for school and do well for the school. But ultimately, you want to get selected for the district team. You want to do well in the district and get selected for the state. Then, you want to compete at the Ranji Trophy level, and ultimately, you want to represent India," added Dhoni, reports IANS.

Continuing on the same, Dhoni reflected, "The more the number of cricketers who are competing to get selected for the district team, the more the competition, the better the chances of the cricketers getting better ultimately helping not only the district but the state cricket association in turn. So today, I would like to thank my Ranchi District Cricket Association for organising all the different categories of school-level cricket that were organised then. More often than not, more of the states follow the same blueprints. So, Class 10 and Class 12 are more like U-16 and U-19 tournaments."

"So, I always feel the responsibility of the district cricket association is huge because year after year, one of the most difficult things to achieve is to try and make sure that the schools are motivated enough to make the team. And then, to compete and make that tournament prestigious enough for everyone to compete and do well," concluded Dhoni.