Former Indian cricket team coach Gary Kirsten revealed how once Mahendra Singh Dhoni cancelled an entire trip because foreigners were not allowed. He shared anecdotes about his relationship with former India captain in a chat with sports presenter Radhakrishnan Sreenivasan in ‘The RK Show’ on YouTube.
Kirsten narrates an incident
Gary Kirsten spoke about his former-colleague Mahendra Singh Dhoni in detail in a recent YouTube interaction. He remembered an incident which proves Dhoni’s loyalty and to Kirsten, that is the most important thing. “I have said on many occasions that he is one of the most impressive people that I have met. He is a great leader of people. He has got an incredible presence as a leader. But I think he is loyal, that’s the most important,” Gary Kirsten told.
He recalled, “I will never forget just before the World Cup, we were in Bangalore and we were to go to the flight school there. We had a couple of foreigners in our support staff, and we got word back on the morning before the whole team was meant to go, while everyone was looking forward to the event – that the three South Africans, which were myself, Paddy Upton and Eric Simmons, weren’t going to be allowed into the flight school because it was seen as a potential security risk. So MS cancelled the whole event. He just said, ‘These are my people. If they’re not allowed in, none of us are going’. And that was what he was all about.”
Equation with Dhoni
Gary Kirsten was appointed as the head coach of Indian cricket team in December 2007 and was one of the key reasons behind India’s 2011 World Cup triumphs. After 28 long year India won World Cup under the captaincy of Dhoni and coaching of Kirsten. The duo gave many memorable moments to Indian cricket and helped the game grow.
While throwing light on the kind of equation they shared, Kirsten told, “He (Dhoni) was very loyal to me. I think he saw that as well. We didn’t always win games, we had some tough times. We would spend time one-on-one talking to each other about taking the team forward. We had a strong relationship when we worked together.”
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