"It always hurts me when game of cricket is in news for wrong reasons," Tendulkar added.
Dhoni continued to dodge the spot-fixing issue in Birmingham on Thursday, raising some disturbing questions on whether the captain was too compromised to even comment on a corruption scandal which threatens to destabilize Indian cricket.
"When the right time comes, I'll answer," was all Dhoni, one of the most powerful figures in the game and a leader of the national team's fortunes, could say.
In doing so, he came across as just another example of the deep-rooted conflict of interest which threatens to derail our favourite sport. Dhoni is, after all, a vice-president at India Cements, the company owned by under-fire BCCI president N Srinivasan.
Srinivasan also owns Chennai Super Kings, the IPL team led by Dhoni whose erstwhile team principal, now in police custody for betting on matches, is Srinivasan's son-in-law.
It seems it is a connection which has now reduced the Indian captain to a puppet on a string, with the inability to speak out even on the need to restore the game's credibility in the hour of its gravest crisis.
Dhoni stuck to his ostrich approach in Birmingham, refusing to answer anything but the most inane of questions.
Asked if he thought Indian cricket's reputation had suffered, he merely said, "It's not that the reputation is gone.
I'd love to elaborate but at the right time, I'll do it." Dhoni should know that in cricket, timing is everything.
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