Kiran More Reveales How He Convinced Sourav Ganguly To Let A Young MS Dhoni To Keep Wickets In Place Of Deep Dasgupta During The 2003/04 Duleep Trophy Final

Former Indian wicketkeeper and chief selector Kiran More has revealed how it took him and his team close to ten days to convince the then Indian skipper, Sourav Ganguly, to let MS Dhoni keep wickets for East Zone instead of local boy Deep Dasgupta during the 2003-04 final against North Zone.

The Indian cricket team was struggling to find a potent wicketkeeper-batsman in ODI cricket at the time. While Rahul Dravid had done a decent job as make-shift keeper between 2002-04, More and the selection committee felt that the team needed someone who can tonk the ball during the later stages of the innings while being safe behind the wickets.

Speaking on ‘The Curtly and Karishma show, Kiran More revealed the first instance when he heard about MS Dhoni.  He revealed that it was his colleague that saw him smoke a whirlwind 130 out of the team’s total of 170.

‘’We were looking for a wicket-keeper batsman. At that time the format was changing and we were looking for a power-hitter, someone who can come at No.6 or 7 and get us quick 40-50 runs. Rahul Dravid played 75 ODI matches as a wicket-keeper and he played the 2003 World Cup as well. So, we were desperate for a wicket-keeper.” revealed Kiran More.

‘’My colleague saw him first, then I went and saw him. I especially flew down and saw him get 130 runs out of the team’s total of 170. He smashed everyone.” he added.

So impressed was Kiran More that he immediately went to Sourav Ganguly and after ten days of back-and-forth, the then Indian skipper finally agreed.

‘’We wanted him (Dhoni) to play in the finals as a wicket-keeper. That’s when we had a lot of debate with Sourav Ganguly and Deep Dasgupta – who played for India then and who was from Calcutta. So, it took about ten days to convince Sourav and his selector to ask Deep Dasgupta to not keep wickets, and to let MS Dhoni keep wickets,” More recalled.

‘We gambled on the right horse and it paid off’- Kiran More on MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni smashed a whirlwind 47-ball 60 in the second innings to give an account of his power game. He was then selected for the India A tri-nation series in Kenya which involved Pakistan as the third team.

The champion cricketer made heads turn with his performances during that series and a national call-up was inevitable.

That call came during the 2004 ODI series in Bangladesh. And the rest, as they say, is history. MS Dhoni may have registered a duck in his debut game but a few months later, he smoked a whirlwind 148 against Pakistan at Vizag. A superstar was well and truly born that. day, someone who went on to take Indian cricket to never-seen-before heights during the course of the next 15 years

”Dhoni kept wickets, he smashed all the bowlers around and then we sent him to Kenya for the triangular series involving India A, Pakistan A and Kenya. MS scored about 600 runs and after that rest his history. So you need to give chances to a cricketer, who has something special in him, who looks like a match-winner. He had all the attributes. It was only a matter of time before all of them clicked together. We gambled on the right horse and it paid off. I gave credit to all of the members of that selection committee,” More said.

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