Not MS Dhoni!! Dwayne Smith Names The Most Selfless Cricketer

Former West Indies explosive Batter Dwayne Smith in a recent interview reminded us about the importance of being a team player and recalled that former Indian batter and 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup winner Suresh Raina was one such player who always prioritized the needs of his team rather than his own.

Both of them were teammates in IPL while playing for the Chennai Super Kings in 2014-2015 and for Gujarat Lions in 2016 and 2017 where Suresh Raina was the captain of the team. And as recent as last month during the 2023 Legends League Cricket, Smith once again found Raina as his Captain with both of them representing the Urabanisers Hyderabad team that reached the Finals but lost to Harbhajan Singh’s Manipal Tigers.

Regardless of that, Dwayne Smith feels that Suresh Raina is someone who has this “in-built” nature of helping everyone around him, especially his Juniors. Raina’s batting ability and fielding prowess are something we all are familiar with but Smith’s recent comments about the UP-born man disclosed the hidden layer of his personality.

Raina’s impression is such that Dwayne Smith did not hesitate while saying that the former is the best cricketer he has played with despite sharing the field with the likes of Chris Gayle, MS Dhoni, Brendon McCullum, and many more. Those who followed LLC 2023, might have seen the selflessness of Suresh Raina.

During the Finale, his team was riding high on Rikki Clarke and Gurkeerat Singh Mann’s knocks and Raina could have gone to the middle to put up the finishing touches but instead, he encouraged Peter Trego, Ashgar Afghan and Stuart Binny to go ahead of him. Although things could have been different had Raina walked out to bat his decision was a testament to his personality.

Dwayne Smith Says Youngsters Will Benefit From Advice of Suresh Raina

The 40-year-old Barbadian who scored 2462 runs in International cricket across all formats claimed that Raina’s attitude will benefit upcoming youngsters and used another UP lad Rinku Singh as an example. “I know I’ve said it many times already about Suresh Raina, but he’s the best cricketer I’ve ever met on and off the field. He just thinks about the team first, then himself, and that selflessness of him is so perfect.”- Dwayne Smith said.

“I’ve watched him from the years I’ve played with him, even playing against him, and you see how he moves about, and it’s so good to see that he’s always trying to help someone. He helped a lot of people, I think recently you heard Rinku Singh talk about him, so it’s good to see and I hope that he will continue, I know that he will continue.” Dwayne Smith concluded. 

At the time of retirement from International cricket in 2020, Suresh Raina scored 7988 runs across all formats – 5615 runs in ODIs, 1605 runs in T20Is, and 768 runs in Test cricket. He also holds the record of being the first Indian batter to score a Century in all 3 formats of the game.