MS Dhoni – one name which always comes to the mind when one speaks about captaincy in cricket. Arguably the greatest captain in world cricket, MS Dhoni is a force to reckon with in the Indian Premier League too. He is the only Indian cricket team captain to win the T20 World Cup, the ODI World Cup and the Champions Trophy too. Under MS Dhoni, India became the world No. 1 Test side also. While MS Dhoni has retired from international cricket, he still competes in the IPL for Chennai Super Kings. He led his team to the title in the IPL 2023 and will aim to emulate the feat again this year.
Along with Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni is the most successful captain in the IPL. Both have won five IPL titles each.
With such a track record, when MS Dhoni speaks about leadership, one should listen wholeheartedly. On Friday, MS Dhoni spoke about leadership and captain duting an event in Mumbai.
MS Dhoni said the respect for a leader comes from his deeds rather than words.
“I always felt that earning respect (as a leader) is important as it does not come with the chair or rank. It comes with your conduct. People are insecure at times. Sometimes, even if the team believes in you, you are actually the first person who will not believe in you,” he said.
“To sum it up, don’t try to command respect but earn it, as it is very organic. Once you have that loyalty then the performance too will follow,” he said.
But the first step for that, Dhoni said, is to understand each and every player in the dressing room – their strengths and weaknesses.
“Some people love pressure and some people don’t like pressure. What is important is to understand the strength of the individual and the weakness of the individual.
“Once you have done that, you will start working on the weakness of a player without actually telling him that this is a weakness.
“So, it keeps a player confident and keeps the player from doubting himself. They like to see how it works and that is the job of a captain or coach to figure out what works for who,” he added.
MA Dhoni added as a leader one has to keep things simple to get the best results out of a team.
“In that process, the simpler you keep things, the easier it will become for you. I always felt that the team (that he captained) had character because all of us were different,” he said.
