Ravindra Jadeja cooks ‘star’ players flexing social media fame

It is the first time cricket fans watched Ravindra Jadeja with such an open mind in front of the camera. On Wednesday (May 28) afternoon, former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin released a full interaction session with Ravindra Jadeja on his official YouTube channel; the caption of the video is "CSK is family—Jaddu gets real."

The duration of the video is about 1 hour 20 minutes. In this time period, Jadeja shared his views about cricket and cricket players on and off the field. He labelled Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the most selfless cricketer he ever saw in his long career.

The star all-rounder made most of his comments directly using the cricketer's name, but certainly there are some comments where he did not mention anyone's name, which led the viewers to speculate. Jadeja talked about social media engagements and respect in real life.

For Jadeja, real life respect matters most for a player

"It's ok for the relentless comments that are posted. I strongly believe that a player should earn respect in the dressing room. Your social media profile engagement doesn't matter at all if you can't gain the respect of your teammates in the dressing room. Some are organic, some are bought, and the trend nowadays is to buy engagement."

And about MS Dhoni, world-winning former India skipper and one of the best captains in the history of IPL, Jadeja said, "My cricket journey has been shaped by two Mahendras—Mahendra Singh Chauhan, my childhood coach, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, my current mentor. I’ve even shared this with Mahi bhai."