MS Dhoni gives pep talk to coaches, focuses on importance of coach-captain relationship

Courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni finally got to speak about the coach-captain relationship, a topic which became a subject of national discourse following the unfortunate Virat Kohli-Anil Kumble episode, during a pep talk session for coaches at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore.

Regarded as one of the greatest ever captains, Dhoni is known for his cool demeanor. But what's even more striking was his controversy-free stint as India captain. Dhoni hardly found himself involved in any power-tussle with coaches or any other member of the team.

But his successor, Kohli recently had a acrimonious fall-out with Anil Kumble, who was forced to step down following their untenable difference.

During the whole episode, Dhoni kept a dignified silence. But reportedly got to the chance to shed some light on the importance on captain-coach relationship, without specifically naming anyone though.

“It was more of a pep talk for the coaches from Dhoni for about 20-25 minutes. He spoke about how to maintain a good working relationship between the captain and coach so that it creates a good team environment,” one of the coaches told TOI.

The report claimed that some of India's top coaches like Sunil Joshi, Vijay Bharadwaj, Kawaljit Singh, M Venkatramana, D Vasu, M Senthilnathan, etc were present in the session.

Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav, who were training at the NCA, were invited to address the gathering.

Besides, there were six coaches from Cricket Australia, including Jason Gillespie.

“It was excellent listening to both MSD and Kedar. They spoke about the importance of confidence and simplicity. All the sessions have been fantastic. The local Indian coaches have been open to new ideas to complement their own coaching work, learning new things. Well done to the BCCI and CA for working together with this,” said the former Australian assistant coach.

Dhoni and Jadhav have already joined their team-mates in Sri Lanka for the limited-overs series, which starts on Sunday with the first of five ODI matches.