Nicknamed Captain Cool, India’s former Captain, MS Dhoni, is known for keeping his nerve in tense situations. Dhoni has almost always lived up to his reputation. However, an old incident from 2014 surfaced when the calm and collected figure lost his temper.
Former Indian fielding coach R Sridhar recalls a moment from a game against West Indies in Delhi’s Feroze Shah Kotla. Despite India winning that evening, MS Dhoni accepted no-nonsense on the field.
R Sridhar narrates the incident of MS Dhoni in his book, ‘Coaching Beyond’
“Getting back to my early days with the Indian team… following MS’ inputs, we began to get out fielding house in order with the World Cup in mind. We were playing West Indies at the Feroz Shah Kotla in October 2014 – a match we won comfortably but where we were absolutely shoddy on the field. MS was furious at what he perceived to be lack of effort and dipping fitness standards,” writes Sridhar in his book ‘Coaching Beyond’.
India came into that game after losing the series’ first game, trailing 1-0. MS Dhoni scored an unbeaten 51 off 40 deliveries to help India to a competitive total of 263/7. The Windies, at a stage, seemed to be cruising towards the target, having put 170 on the board for the loss of two wickets. However, this was followed by a famous batting collapse. Windies lost eight wickets for 45 runs to be bowled out for 215.
Sridhar recalls that the Captain said after the match, “I feel quite a few things are missing. We have to pull our socks up. We have not played to our potential. This game is a crucial eye-opener for us. We are on the winning side, but we could have lost this.”
“In the dressing room, he ripped the team to shreds and gave them an ultimatum, making it clear that if they didn’t meet certain standards in fielding and fitness, they would not make the World Cup cut, no matter what name they answer to. That showed me the kind of fielding culture he was looking to establish in white-ball cricket,” he adds.
