Cramped calendar hampers mental preparation: Dhoni

[Manny_Pacquiao]

TO BE FAIR, dhoni's captaincy is one of the few positive things india have got going for them right now...

[Bumper]

I am absolutely serious. I don’t know if you have played basketball, but I do. I have played cricket as well and I can tell with no qualms whatsoever that cricket is no match for basketball in terms of physical exhaustion. I have played club-level, amateur class, 25 overs/side cricket games and many of them, I have gone through the entire game without breaking a sweat, quite literally. But trust me, in terms of demands on stamina/energy, basketball is on a completely different level. I hate to admit this in public, but I cannot last more 20 mins of full court basketball, I just cant. It is THAT tiring. I need a 5-10 minute break before I can enter back into the court. The NBA players play 2 HOURS a night, almost every other night. I cannot even begin to imagine how tiring that would be.

Try getting an NBA player to just stand in the heat for 3 sessions of a test match. Most of them would faint. And try doing that over 5 days. And try doing about 12 times a year. First of all a basket ball game lasts for 60 mins spread over 4 quarters (not 2 hours at a stretch) & players do get breaks (unless you are a Jordan or Kobe). On top of it there are timeouts. In basket ball you spend your energy in spurts for short periods of time. Cricket wears you down. Just try standing in a line for 5 hours in the sun & see how tired you get. Not sure how you can dismiss the work load of a cricketer.