'Honest' MS Dhoni gives you enough chances to succeed, says Dwayne Smith

Jamaica: It's not very common for a cricketer to say that the "best cricket team" he has ever played is a franchise and not his country but for West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Smith, Chennai Super Kings is his top team mainly because of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

"Chennai Super Kings is the best cricket team that I have ever been a part of. You feel very relaxed in the CSK dressing room. The set-up is such and everything is taken care of. You have a coach like Stephen Fleming and a friend like Suresh Raina. But above all there is Mahendra Singh Dhoni. When I came into the CSK set-up, they make you feel at home and comfortable," the 32-year-old told PTI in an interaction.

The best aspect of Dhoni's leadership is his ability to give a player chance to succeed.

"With MS, you can never complain that you didn't get your share of chances. He gives you ample opportunities to succeed and then it's upto you take those chances. He is an honest cricketer, one of the best in the world and has a thinking brain. He would always tell you to not get worried about everything and play freely."

"Over the past couple of seasons, I have tried to closely watch Dhoni and imbibe a lot of things from his captaincy and tried to imbibe that in my game. Certainly, the stint at CSK and interactions with Dhoni has made me a better cricketer," confesses Smith.

Smith had an average IPL for CSK this season in which he managed only 399 runs in 16 matches at an average of close to 25 and a strike-rate of shade under 120.

"I didn't have a good season but I am not thinking about it too much. I was positive but I don't think there is any point in looking back at the season. It was a simple thing. I was out of form and now I have to practice hard to get back into form," said Smith, who hit a couple of half-centuries in the recently concluded season of the cash-rich league.