During the press conference after India’s defeat to Sri Lanka, Dhoni said the following:
“The IPL is not just about cricket,” Dhoni said, towards the end of his press conference in St Lucia. “There are lots of things going around it,” he added, as a sudden hush descended on the hall.
“The players have to respect the body, give it time to recover. There have been day-night matches, then parties, and early morning flights too. All this, including the travel, takes a toll. But if you are smart, I don’t think 45 days of cricket will drain you,” he said.
This is from the Times of India, under the incredibly ludicrous, misleading headline: “IPL parties pooped us: Dhoni’s bouncer leaves board fuming.” The article quotes a number of Indian cricket’s has-beens and nobodies (Madan Lal; Mohammad Azharuddin; some guy called Syed Kirmani. This is Lal:
Who was forcing them (players) to attend these IPL parties? They could have said ‘no’. I don’t think they should say all this. These are silly excuses. The fact is they had gone there to win the World Cup and they just weren’t good enough.”
Here’s what’s wrong with this picture: first, it’s completely wrong to suggest that Dhoni said IPL parties led to India’s defeat. (In fact, on numerous other occasions, he’s explicitly stated the opposite.) Second, even if you look at his quote, he said the IPL as a whole (the day-night matches, the long trips around the country, the parties, included) takes a toll. There. A commonsense answer. Leave it alone.
Ducking Beamers: A Cricket Blog 
OK, even assuming that MS directly blamed the IPL Parties for the loss, the former players shouldn’t be churlish and say that no-one forced them.
The corporates say that it is optional, but any person with half-a-brain knows that’s not the case. It’s like when a parent tells his/her kid, You can go and marry anyone you like, I don’t care, when, inside, he/she may not be too happy about it.
It’s best not to even post about such stupid sound bites by these ‘greats’
You’re quite right, Dhoni did not say that the parties led to India’s defeat and any newspaper which seeks to only highlight that aspect of his reply in the pres conference in their quest for the most sensationalist headline isn’t one that should be taken seriously… That said, why did Dhoni have to bring it up? Fatigue from matches on alternate days and long flights would have sufficed, the problem is the attitudes of several of the players was questioned and by bringing up a red herring Dhoni could have been trying to deflect from the more serious questions…
India’s preparation was woeful, some of his tactics questionable and the selection abysmal. To say perhaps some players didn’t look after their bodies because of the IPL… and the direct inference being if you were smart – day/night games and early flights… hmmm perhaps if you get a good night sleep it shouldn’t be too bothersome, but how to get a goodnight sleep if you’re up till 3am partying??? – was a dig at how some members of the side had motivational and attitude issues and didn’t put cricket as their highest priority. It was an unnecessary and rather silly attempt at sharing the blame.
Thiru, the likes of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar were able to skip most of the parties quite easily despite a lot of arm twisting by Modi… From a few of the sensationalist articles I’ve read, a few of the younger players who haven’t had it so good before made it a point to attend the parties without too much persuasion. None of this matters imo, people have their own choices and are free to decide how to plan according to what they believe is best to them, but for the skipper to make digs about it is rather silly. If he thought it was such a big problem, as soon as the sq
(cont) squad was announced by the selectors, he could have made it clear that he required certain players to be exempt in the interests of being fit and prepared for the WC, and then if the board ignored or overruled him, he could have made his stand clear once India were knocked out. I don’t know if all that happened, but thats the only case in which I would give him the benefit of the doubt.
Hey Nice post…ya the night parties are the problem…my question is should we need IPL??
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Mahendra singh dhoni – The supreme power in Indian cricket team!!!
Dhoni, the formal captain of Indian cricket team has being now drowned in couple of controversies.Just few days back he was targeted for playing triangular series,dating plenty girlfriends.recently he was linked up with ASIN.
After all these silly gossips and losing in world cup 2010 made to dig into a deep danger.He was also losing the threat to lose his captainship.
glancing to all the above stories and fake rumors, a focusing point stands is that – NO ONE REMEMBERS THE VICTORY OF DLF IPL3,rather his defeat which was a team fault.