Will MS Dhoni go the Rahul Dravid way or Kapil Dev way? MSD retirement debate rages on

With every passing series, the debate around MS Dhoni's future continues to gather steam. As per reports, the former Indian captain will not play for Jharkhand in the Vijay Hazare trophy and will also not be available for the T20I series against Bangladesh. He continues to hog press conferences as no discussion is ever complete without his mention.

The big question which rages on: Will MS Dhoni, one of the greatest to have ever played the game, get his timing right as far as the retirement question is concerned? No one really knows the answer and hence, speculations continue to be rife.

Indian cricket has always been at the receiving end when it comes to legendary cricketers deciding to call it a day. There is this feeling that even Kapil Dev lingered on long after his prime and this had an impact on the initial days of Javagal Srinath's career, who was then at his prime.

BCCI has to take the hard decision

In a PTI report, several cricketers, who do not wish to be named, have said that very often the board does not know how to put a stern message across to star cricketers when they are nearing the end of the careers. This does not help Indian cricket one bit since it impacts a number of young cricketers.

"Many times you are dropped and you feel angry. You want to prove a point. You want to retire from the ground. You want your Sachin Tendulkar moment, albeit in a smaller way but with the feeling of warmth and sense of achievement. No one wants that silent goodbye. We live in a bubble and are not adjusted to a quiet self," said a recently-retired cricketer.

When Sourav Ganguly called it a day after the Australia series, it became evidently clear that the then captain MS Dhoni wanted new faces in the squad. Hence, he controlled his own fate after the 2008 series.

It was the same with Rahul Dravid, who had a stellar season in England with the Indian test side in 2011. However, he failed in Australia and despite the fact that he would not have been dropped, he went out on his own terms and retired from the game.

When it came to Sachin Tendulkar, the selectors were convinced that although he was not peeling off centuries, he looked quite good even at the fag end of the career.

As per PTI, the then chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil later confessed that they did want to have a fresh outlook in ODIs and conveyed the message to Tendulkar, which prompted him to first retire from ODIs in December 2012.

Hence, the million-dollar question still persists - Will MS Dhoni time this decision right, or has he already overstayed his time with the Indian team?