‘Told Ruturaj he is free not to take a single piece of advice’: Dhoni ahead of CSK’s final home game

CHENNAI: There’s a lot of anticipation whether MS Dhoni will be seen in action for one last time at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Monday. He came in late for practice on Sunday, got padded up, did a bit of warm-up and headed straight to the nets, hitting those huge sixes we are so used to seeing over the years.

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There was no clarity from CSK whether he will play, even though it was told that he will do the customary fan events that he does every year at the end of CSK’s home campaign.




Even though Dhoni has been missed in the middle through the season due to his calf injury, his experience has been invaluable for the team. During an event prior to the practice session Sunday, Dhoni spoke about his suggestions to captain Ruturaj Gaikwad.

“What I told Rutu was to run CSK the way he wanted to run it. That’s how I have run CSK for a very long time. And I always felt it’s a game where the captain has to make the decisions. Yes, there are coaches and support stuff, but it’s not like football where the manager decides. In cricket, it’s about the captain and he has to decide,” Dhoni said.

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The legend said that there can be things that Ruturaj can pick up from him, but he essentially needs to be his own man. “Yes, there will be certain things that he will pick from the way I used to lead. But individuals are different…Whatever you feel is your style, you have the full liberty over here to decide,” Dhoni said.

The 44-year-old explained how he advised his protege that he would be open to give advice. “I’m very open, I’ll come and talk to you, but you don’t have to do even one thing that I speak to you about. Let’s say I come up with ten pieces of advice, if you don’t follow even one, that is fair enough. When you are the leader, you have to take that responsibility. As a leader, you see the resources that you have and how you want to use it,” Dhoni added.

The former skipper who guided the team to five titles insisted that he always insisted on the “cricket first” approach that led to the team’s success. “We are someone who believes in concentrating more on cricket. Yes, we have had to do a lot of other things that are surrounding cricket, but as a franchisee, we know that our essence is cricket and we should stick to that,” he said at the event organized by Etihad, one of the team sponsors.

Dhoni’s amazing fan connect also came up for discussion and the Jharkhand man explained how he didn’t make an extra effort to ensure it.

“In my case, I never wanted to woo fans or have more followers. I just wanted to be authentic, once you are authentic, people start loving you and they start picking up stuff that they love about you,” Dhoni said, which can be a lesson for the modern day reel hungry cricketers.

He added that the consistency of the team went a long way in its success. “The support of the fans matters, when the chips are down, you can get that extra 10-15% from the crowd,” Dhoni said.

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