India captain M.S. Dhoni believes the Associate nations should be playing more cricket against the sport's top countries, just not against his team.
Dhoni agrees that the game needs to be grown around the world – "where there is a fire anywhere, you have to make sure it becomes a bushfire". But he said India's cricket schedule is already full and can't accommodate any more games being added to the fixture.
"What is important is you want cricket to be a global sport when it comes to participation," he said, after his side beat the United Arab Emirates by nine wickets in Perth on Friday night.
"What's more important is instead of looking at it from a commercial point of view, you have to make sure where there is existence of the sport, you have to make sure it keeps on increasing and at the same time you have to look at some of the other countries where there is a prospect of playing cricket.
"We'll have to give them more opportunities and make sure the infrastructure in those countries is getting better and better so more people can come and play cricket.
"Not against India. I don't see India playing any more games."
Dhoni said that Indian players already matched the number of Test matches and ODIs played by other nations – but they condense their season into nine and a half months, instead of the whole year, leaving time for players to participate in the Champions League and the Indian Premier League.
Plus as soon as an Indian player has a break his state team contacts him with expectations that he play for them too.
Dhoni said the only way Indian cricketers could play more was to play two games in one day.
"Yes, the associate nations, if they can get a few more games in a better scenario in good facilities, it will be good for them, because at the end of the day it's like a circus – where you want to play in front of people, you want to compete in the best scenarios," Dhoni said.
"So we'll have to formulate a way. But please, not India. India can't play any more games."
The ICC has already announced that only 10 countries would contest the next World Cup, in England and Wales in 2019, dropping the number of competing teams from this tournament by four.
However, the decision has attracted criticism from many circles, questioning why the sport's governing body would limit the opportunities to cricket associations at which it is throwing so many resources.
