Dhoni retirement as it happened: Decision to quit leaves cricket world perplexed

Dhoni's childhood coach says skipper hinted at retirementDhoni's first coach Chanchal Bhattacharya said that although he knew Dhoni was thinking about his Test career, he didn't expect the decision to retire: "I talked to him a few months back, but we didn't discuss his retirement, though he did mention that it is around the corner. Also, he had hinted about it a year back that he has to take a look at this Test career."Full report'Brand Dhoni won't be affected'"Dhoni has reached a stage where retirement from Tests should not affect his brand value. A brand goes through ups and downs, a brand also has a life cycle. He would now be known for diffferent attributes after today's retirement. His image will go through a change of course but would it be downhill for him? I don't think so," Joshi, an advertising guru and noted Bollywood lyricist told PTI.Prahlad Kakkar also agreed — click here to read the full report.Twitter reactsFrom Sachin Tendulkar to Suresh Raina and Arjun Kapoor — cricketers and Bollywood personalities took to Twitter to hail Dhoni's contribution to Indian cricket.We have a compilation of some of the best tweets -- and below is the Master Blaster's reaction to Dhoni's retirement.A timeline of Dhoni's careerFrom his debut to his first century and the wretched run of eight consecutive Test losses on the road — Dhoni has had a roller-coaster ride in whites — here's a complete timeline of India's (former) Test skipper.'Dhoni still had a few years of cricket in him'“The decision comes as a huge surprise. Though it is not sudden. I was expecting him to step down from captaincy after the Sydney match but did not think he will retire as a player. I still think that he had 2 or 3 more years of cricket left in him,” Gavaskar told NDTV.https://twitter.com/sidin/status/549917324065902593Dilip Vengsarkar, Chandu Borde and Ajit Wadekar also reacted to the retirement. Click here to read all the reactions.Dhoni didn't make the decision in haste - BCCI"MS is a very practical man. Today, he called up just after the Test match in Melbourne and told me that he wanted to retire from Test cricket. I asked him "what happened are you injured or what?" He just calmly told me "No, I just want to quit Test cricket for good,". He is an Indian captain and a distinguished cricketer. It's his personal choice and I needed to respect that," BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel told PTI.Click here for full report.A new India emerges"A lot has been said about Virat Kohli's aggressive words in the press conference but it was the aggression that he showed with the bat at Adelaide which probably had a greater impact on the Aussies' psyche than perhaps even he imagined. Dhoni's impact in away Tests in recent times has been minimal in comparison," writes Sports Editor Ashish Magotra. Click here to read the full analysis.Dhoni felt Kohli was ready to take over as skipper: reportsTimes Now is quoting Indian team sources as saying that Dhoni was convinced that Virat Kohli was ready to take the team to the next level.The channel are also reporting that Dhoni didn't want to become a liability on the team and asked the BCCI to wait over a formal announcement until he had informed his team of the decision.Click here for the top photos from MS Dhoni's Test career[caption id="attachment_2023147" align="alignleft" width="620"] Dhoni leads his team out during a Test in Pakistan. Reuters[/caption]Dhoni retires: Mahendra Singh Dhoni today surprised the cricket world with his sudden announcement of immediate retirement from Test cricket, making way for Virat Kohli to don the mantle of captaincy. Announcement of Dhoni's retirement after the wicketkeeper-batsman had played in 90 Test matches, 60 of them as captain, was made immediately after India lost the current Test series to Australia following a drawn third Test here."One of India's greatest Test Captains under whose leadership India became the No. 1 team in the Test Rankings MS Dhoni, has decided to retire from Test Cricket citing the strain of playing all formats of Cricket," the BCCI said in a statement."M S Dhoni has chosen to retire from Test Cricket with immediate effect in order to concentrate on ODI and T20 formats. BCCI while respecting the decision of M S Dhoni to retire from Test Cricket, wishes to thank him for his enormous contribution to Test Cricket and the laurels that he has brought to India," it added.[caption id="attachment_1649165" align="alignleft" width="380"] PTI[/caption]India, trailing 0-2 in the four-match series after today's draw, would be led by the 26-year-old Kohli in the fourth and final match in Sydney. Kohli has been India's standout performer with the bat in the ongoing series, having scored three hundreds so far."Virat Kohli will be the captain of the Indian Team for the Fourth and Final Test against Australia to be played in Sydney from the 6th of January 2015," the BCCI stated. (PTI)