Former Australia batsman George Bailey has revealed some of the leadership techniques used by MS Dhoni in a tribute video posted by Cricket Australia.
Bailey, who played under Dhoni’s captaincy with Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, has lauded the India stalwart for his calmness on the pitch while revealing some of his unique traits.
“The greatest thing I took from MS was just his ability to impact the team with his calmness. With the chaos, and whatever is happening in the game numerous times, you see him being so calm behind the wickets. With the bat in his hand, you can certainly feel he’s got a plan and he’s got something covered here and it’s going to be okay,” Bailey said in the video posted on Cricket Australia’s Facebook page.
The 36-year-old Aussie lauded Dhoni’s ability to bond with younger Indian cricketers and to make them feel at home despite his stature.
“It was very much an open door policy (to chat to MS in his hotel room). You would go in and quite often find a lot of younger players there. For India or lot of other cricket teams, it can be hierarchical, but he certainly broke that down,” Bailey explained.
“You just find yourself in his room late at night chatting inevitably about the game or different facets of the game with different people. It’s a great way to break down barriers,” he continued.
Delving further into Dhoni’s tactical genius, Bailey revealed how the veteran wicketkeeper batsman could send his own bowlers into a tizzy.
“He can really panic some bowlers, it’s quite funny going into some bowling meetings because he would never come to them. The bowlers would spend their time looking at wagon wheels and preparing how are they going to bowl to the batsman and they walk out to the field and have the bowl in their hand and MS would just point in a completely different direction. You can see a few of the bowlers eyes start to spin,” Bailey stated.
Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings to a third IPL title this year after winning the trophy previously in 2010 and 2011. In the recently-concluded Asia Cup, he took charge of his 200th ODI as India skipper after Rohit Sharma was rested for the Super Four clash against Afghanistan.
