I sincerely hope this expectation on 'a player to take a decision that benefits the country' is dumped with. A Tendulkar or a Dhoni are well within their rights to continue playing for as long as they want to, and it is not their responsibility to groom their respective replacements (although if someone does it, its purely voluntary and a pretty nice thing to do). Its the cricket board who should be having appropriate replacements and follow the process of "giving the backup players a chance at the highest level" to ensure that they are ready.
In a country like India, there will be lots of players who dont get much opportunities at the national level and are perenially waiting in the sidelines. You can have only 11 players playing in a XI and a pool of around 20-25 players at a given period of time. With careers spanning almost 20 years on average, many players are going to miss the bus when it comes to representing India at the highest level. The IPL has now come to balance it out. So there is nothing to blame Dhoni or the likes about.
In a country like India, there will be lots of players who dont get much opportunities at the national level and are perenially waiting in the sidelines. You can have only 11 players playing in a XI and a pool of around 20-25 players at a given period of time. With careers spanning almost 20 years on average, many players are going to miss the bus when it comes to representing India at the highest level. The IPL has now come to balance it out. So there is nothing to blame Dhoni or the likes about.
