A lot of focus will be on the associate players when the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 Mega Auction takes place in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13. Notably, 41 players from the associate nations have registered their names for the IPL 2022 Player Auction with several first-timers. (More Cricket News)
Among the associates, a lot of the spotlight will be on Bhutan all-rounder Ranjung Mikyo Dorji, who recently shared a video on Instagram with former India skipper and four-time IPL-winning Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
In an Instagram video posted by Dorji, MS Dhoni was seen giving the youngster a piece of valuable advice that went viral. “Keep it simple. Focus more on the process and less on the results. If you get the process right you will get the result. And enjoy, don’t take too much pressure,” Dhoni told Dorji in the video.
Ever since his retirement from international cricket in 2020, Dhoni has been pictured giving pieces of advice to a lot of youngsters in the Indian Premier League and his guidance to the Dorji made the whole internet world go gaga over it. Dorji is also the first Bhutanese player to register his name for the IPL Player Auctions.
Bhutan, which is nested in the foothills of the Himalayas, is more known for archery – the country’s national sport. Cricket is taking baby steps in Bhutan. Dorji’s participation in the IPL 2022 mega auctions is itself a big step forward to popularize the game in the nation.
However, Dorji, who dreams of playing in the cash-rich tournament, believes it will be a dream come true if he gets picked in the auction. “It will be a rather rare chance for me to be selected for the auction and then by a team,” Dorji was quoted by saying in a Cricket Bhutan press release.
“But if it happens, it will be a dream come true because playing at IPL is one of my ultimate dreams. I will continue to look for opportunities to play in different leagues around the world,” he added. Dorji, who is one of 41 associate players to register for the IPL 2022 mega auction, is not new to India.
He was a part of the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai in 2018 and 2019 to work on his bowling. It is learnt that the video is from one of his visits to Chennai when Dorji met Dhoni at a team hotel. Since then. Dorji has been spending long hours in training, trying to make a mark for himself.
Dorji is also the first player from Bhutan to play franchise cricket outside the country when he represented Lalitpur Patriots in the Everest Premier League in Nepal last year. Dorji made his debut for the national team against Malaysia in a T20 game in 2018 - the same year in which ICC granted full membership to all its associate nations.
Since all T20 matches played between Bhutan and other member associations after January 1, 2019, have been counted as a full T20 international, Dorji's international debut officially happened in 2019 when Bhutan played Nepal in the South Asian Games. He scored 27 in that game.
