"I do not allow my boys to give maa-behen ki gaali": MS Dhoni

There is a thin line between being voluntary and being categorical. MS Dhoni is on tiptoe and has crossed this line several times as captain. This can happen by supporting a player or showing one that he / she has not recovered. (Express File)

In February 2008, India was beating an easy 160 total against Australia in the Commonwealth Bank Series at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). It was only the fifteenth ODI as captain for MS Dhoni, and he was at the limit with Rohit Sharma. With 10 points to win, he called for an unnecessary change in gloves. In cricket, it is usually with a pair of gloves that we see the information coming from the locker room. Dhoni did the opposite though. He sent a poignant message to the pavilion. "Nobody will celebrate on the balcony once we win this game."

Meanwhile, Dhoni gave instructions to Rohit about how the young man should behave by shaking hands with the Australians once the match is over. He wanted it to be as warm as possible. When they give their hand, hold it firmly without folding it as an obligation, but do not overdo it. And watch them simply without any trace of excitement. "

It was at the time when the Australians were still at their best level.Beating them meant a lot for any opposition, as well in their own backyard to the mighty MCG.C & # 39 was a time when Ricky Ponting's team believed that each defeat was a "surprise" and not just a win for his opponents.India had dominated this particular match from the beginning.Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan gathered nine wickets between them and shot the hosts for only 159. India had more or less crossed over to their target and now Dhoni the rookie wanted to give his counterpart all conquering, beating the world his version

"It was Mahi's way of saying that it was not serious. My bowlers have all taken them out for 160 and we are pursuing them, like kaunse badi baat hai (there is no problem). If we celebrate fiercely, Australians will be justified in their belief that it was a surprise. We wanted to tell them that it is not a coincidence. This will happen again and again. Australians simply could not handle it. They were shaken, "a player of this tour revealed much later.

This was not the only time during the Commonwealth Bank Series, which India eventually won, when Dhoni was had the best of the Aussies to their own spirit … game of disintegration.As it does with everything else, the Indian captain did it in his own style, without ever falling into the sea.

Some some of the youngest players on the team had told Dhoni that one of Australia 's best drummers his thoughts on an opponent on the pitch, had lobbied and dragged each and every one of them when they When the player responded in kind, the player asked the boy to show respect, so the next time he went out to open the sleeves, Dhoni lined up all the juniors near the line of demarcation. in a false guard of honor.And everything they said to the Australian was "resp. ect, respect, respect, "as he walked towards the middle. It was Mahi's way of saying, "I want to thank you. Yeh lo respect. (You want respect on demand, here it is). ", Says a former teammate

The one-day stint of this tour follows a series of tumultuous tests that, in addition to the Monkeygate fiasco, saw both teams at the throat on and off the field . India felt stolen in Sydney when some arbitration decisions, on the part of Steve Bucknor in particular, attacked them – that was six months before the birth of the examination system of the United States. decisions (DRS). Anil Kumble, the Test captain, had left for the home at the end of the Test series but not before declaring, "Only one team plays in the spirit of the game." India won the next test in Perth but lost the series. Ponting and Co. were all ready for a reminder in the one day series. Dhoni, who was still only in his fourth year of international cricket and at his first overseas posting as captain of the ODI, had to deal with the heat. He did it in his own way – he reduced the friction between the two parties by simply not reacting to the stimuli. Australians were amazed.

This was MS Dhoni's war style without bloodshed. He worked, and in the end he had a trophy to show for him.

Goli maarta hai apne mein style (He pulls in his own style.) He says the problem is if I allow my boys to give maa-behen ki gaali (swear words involving the mother or the sister of someone); it's them and not the one who suffers that will feel the pinch of what they've done for the rest of the day, "says one of Dhoni's close friends. He does not believe in manifestations of aggression. He believes that if you want to hurt them, do it in your style, not in their own way. If they believe in swearing, you do not need to do it, "he adds.

Incidentally, seven years and two tours later, Dhoni had not changed anything. In the 2014-15 test series in Australia, which was riddled with incidents of players like Virat Kohli, David Warner and Brad Haddin slit their throats, Dhoni talked about how he never prevented his players from confronting each other, but only asked them never to become personal.It had been his opinion all along.Dhoni was not only good at defusing difficult situations with l & # 39; He could, at times, put his own team-mates at ease in a tense scenario.Take the final IPL 2013. Chennai Super Kings had been in the trenches.The saga of the spots was at its peak and was throwing names and scandals every day.Their team director, later described as a 'pbadio' born cricket, "was on bail. The team was under the pump. The players had been in a lockdown at the hotel. As the CSK players prepared for the usual rally near the border ropes, Dhoni felt the tension around him. Vexed faces, local and foreign, all waiting for their captain to utter magical words of inspiration and motivation. Dhoni remained faithful to his direct approach. He said, "Boys, we are second on the rankings of the IPL Fair Play Award. I want us to do everything we can to finish at the top of the list. Good luck. "And he was gone." Later, he told a teammate that it was his way of breaking the tension.

There is a thin line between being a volunteer and being uncompromising.Dhoni went on the tip and cross this line repeatedly as a captain.This can happen by supporting a player or doing his best to show one that he has not recovered.Rarely he has removed his skates and went into the bowl without this being a signal to the selectors on what he thought of the bowling arsenal at his disposal. "Speaking of signals, VB Chandrasekhar remembers who returned in 2008, shortly after his explosion on the bus

"I told him once that you and I had to have a little conversation after this game and he said, 'Where am I? have time? It was his defensive way of saying, "Do not argue things. Leave him. I agree to do what I do. "It's then that I realized that it's a guy who's going to be very adamant with what he wants to do … that's why he would succeed." in the years to come … because he had his own mind and he did not let others bother him, "says the former coach. In 2016, when the World T20 tournament arrived in India, it was the turn of the International Cricket Council (ICC) to discover that you could not force Dhoni's hand and make him do something that he did. He did not want to do it.

The ICC and the broadcasters had imagined an idea before the event where the captains of each team could read their XI in the mic once the draw was over. It turned out that India faced New Zealand in Nagpur during the opening match of the tournament. The first captain who was to play the role of the improvised announcer was Dhoni. But when the request was made to him, his answer was, as always, short and precise. "No, I do not think so," he said. Just like that, the great idea of ​​the ICC has been abandoned.

Chandrasekhar recalls having to change his approach to pbad to the captain of the CSK, and in the third season he felt like he had broken the code. He realized that if you forced an idea on Dhoni, he would ignore both you and the idea. But if you, as a coach or support staff, leave it open, there was a chance that he could at least consider using it.

While in 2010, Chandrasekhar found that Sri Lankan magician Muralitharan was struggling slightly. The ball, he decided to drop a suggestion to Dhoni, very gently.

"He made Ashwin four bolts straight up and Murali would come right after the strategic break at which point the drummers would be ready to relax and they would go after him.Dhoni agreed that Murali lacked confidence," says Chandrasekhar. It was natural, he added, that the trust of the off-spinner was broken, considering that Dhoni would repeatedly hit him in the nets during practice, to the point that Murali would come to say to the director with fear: "The bugger is a monster."

Chandrasekhar's view was that Ashwin could be stopped after three overs and Murali gave his first before the strategic break, since drummers generally did not risk losing a wicket. – at least on the basis of the trend of the time – before the break, they could play Murali and allow the legend to better integrate in his spell.

that's what it's all about Vene z the next game, believe it or not, he did just that. Now I could not go and say "thank you for listening". He would have stopped doing it in the next game. But it was a lesson for Chandrasekhar and future coaches or team mentors on best practices to present Dhoni with an idea – always as a pbading suggestion rather than a strong one. So it's no surprise that Gary Kirsten and Stephen Fleming – and to some extent even Duncan Fletcher – have behaved so well with the Dhoni captaincy style. They were all great cricketers in their own right, but when it came to Dhoni, they preferred to sign up rather than weigh when they had a suggestion to make. (Excerpt courtesy of Penguin Random House India)

For all the latest sports news, download Indian Express App