'Dhoni got this beautiful way of just being able to take the pressure off.'
Michael Hussey shared a heart-warming insight into Mahendra Singh Dhoni's mindset on how the Chennai Super Kings legend calms young Indian players in the high-pressure Indian Premier League.
Hussey, the batting coach at CSK, said Dhoni's hotel room is literally always open for his team-mates during the IPL -- a space where they bond over cricket talk, food and shisha (flavoured tobacco).
"Dhoni is just the most amazing guy, his room is available open 24 hours a day. So, anyone can go up there and just sit. He got his big lounge room, players just sit around, start talking cricket, some of them like the shisha, the flavoured tobacco stuff. That is their way of socialising, talking about the game and things like that. Credit to Dhoni, he opens his room up, lots of players come and sit, they bring food up, it is fantastic," Hussey said in The Overlap Cricket show on YouTube.
The Australian also spoke about Dhoni's unique way of handling the young players before big games in the IPL.
"He is a special guy. He sees the game differently to most and that's what I love about him. Well, I sort of see the game and I think oh, you know this is how it should be played or this is what you should be doing in this situation. He will almost go like a 180-degree view and try and see it differently. But I think his greatest strength, particularly in a place like India where there is so many players and there is so much pressure and so much stress."
"You can see these young Indian guys, they want it so bad. They are trying so hard. There is so much pressure on their place in the team. They know there is a billion people watching them, huge crowd. And Dhoni got this beautiful way of just being able to take the pressure off."
He shared an example from his playing days when CSK were playing a high-voltage game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Chennai, where Dhoni managed to calm the young players before the match.
"I will give you an example. Before any game you see the players come out and do the huddle. We were playing this game CSK vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru, it's a big rivalry at our place (in Chennai). The crowd was pumping and I was still playing at that stage, standing in the huddle and Dhoni could just see these young Indians were nervous as anything, it was a massive game and he goes 'boys, it doesn't matter if we win or lose today, just go and enjoy yourself, smile to the crowds, try and execute your skills but the most important thing is I want to win the Fair Play award this year. So if you get a wicket and the umpire says not out don't argue with him, just get on with the next ball. If you get out and you think you are not out I don't want to see any arguing, just go and relax. That's the way the game goes'.
"I remember thinking what the heck you are talking about. If you get Chris Gayle out, take the shirt off and swing it around. But I remember thinking what the heck is this guy talking about. But it wasn't till later that I realised he was just trying to take the pressure off these young Indian players, just go and play, some days you win some days you lose, just try and execute your skills and do the best you can and you can see the stress coming out of the young players when it was such a big game."
Incredibly, in his 16 years with CSK, Hussey revealed that he has never seen Dhoni practise his wicketkeeping.
"I was a player at CSK for eight years and I have been a coach at CSK for eight years. The only time I have seen Dhoni catch a ball was when he wanted to knock in a new pair of gloves. (Other than that) I have never seen him practise his keeping ever. But his batting, he bats a long time, he hits nearly 1000 balls."
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