BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Wednesday (September 8) announced former captain, MS Dhoni, as the mentor of the Indian cricket team for the upcoming T20 World Cup. The BCCI administrators had a chat with Dhoni and offered him the role before roping him as a team mentor.
As per the reports of the Times of India, Dhoni had not immediately agreed to the new role during the 90-minute meeting that happened in Dubai, 10 days back. The reports reveal Dhoni wasn't sure about the role initially.
“It was a request to which he couldn’t say no to, but he took his time before giving his nod,” TOI source said. “In the initial proposal, the term ‘mentor’ wasn’t mentioned. It was more of an advisory role to the team. But it was Dhoni’s equation with Virat that proved to be the clincher,” the source added.
Dhoni and Virat have played together for a long time. Even when the Jharkhand cricketer had handed over the captaincy in 2017, he continued to take part in the leadership role with Virat.
“Kohli always valued Dhoni’s judgment and that has to be one of the reasons behind his decision to do the mentorship,” the source said.
Dhoni currently leads Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. Despite giving up international cricket, Dhoni is still aware of the happenings in T20 cricket and that could well be one of the reasons Team India were keen to have him as a mentor. “It is Dhoni’s T20 intelligence. Due to his IPL commitments, is extremely aware of the goings-on of the T20 world,” the source added.
(Inputs from Times of India)
