The former Team India head coach, Gary Kirsten, heaped praise on former captain MS Dhoni for his being a great leader and called him "the ultimate team player". Under Kirsten coaching and Dhoni’s guidance, India won the 2011 World Cup trophy for the first time in 28 years at Wankhede Stadium.
Dhoni is the only captain to have won all the ICC limited-overs trophies, but he is rarely seen in the frame when the team is celebrating or posing with the cups, and the former coach said it was just his greatness.
Kirsten told The Indian Express on the Idea Exchange programme, “I think he’s just an ultimate team player. He is a great leader; his interest is in the performance of the team. As a captain, his mindset was always to look at the team first and see the way the team could be thriving. He never dwelled on his own performances. His focus was always on how the team could do well.”
Speaking about his coaching philosophy, the World Cup-winning coach said: “I think every environment requires something different. So it’s really about understanding the environment you are working in. For example, working with a lot of senior players requires a different leadership as compared to when you are with a group of junior, inexperienced players.”
He added, “So, it’s really understanding that environment. Your style of leadership will be based on what the requirements are. Young players need a bit more guidance and direction. Senior players just need an environment where they feel they can make a contribution. I think a lot of it just depends on the environment that you are working in as a coach.”
Kirsten is currently working with the Gujarat Titans as a mentor in the ongoing IPL 2022.
Revealing his conversations with captain Hardik Pandya, the Proteas great said: “We’ve had a number of conversations, but, you know, the coaching conversations are mostly not about me giving him directions. It is more about me helping him understand what he wants to achieve with his batting.”
He signed off by saying, “He has got some good clarity in that space. He realized that he’s going to play a very different role in this team as a batsman, compared to what he has done in his previous franchise. He has absolutely thrived in that new role. I mean, he’s class. He’s a fantastic batsman; he can play in a lot of different ways. He’s not one-dimensional in his ball striking.
He can rotate the strike and he can get the ball to the boundary. Those kinds of batsmen are very dangerous. They can do different things on a field. I think he’s played with great maturity and he has handled the pressure situations really well when he walked into bat with two down quickly. So, I have been nothing but impressed with that journey.”
(The Indian Express inputs)
