Aggressive Culture Brought By Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni Totally Opposite: Krishnamachari Srikkanth
India have been blessed with a number of legendary captains in the last couple of decades. The century started with Sourav Ganguly taking the reigns of the Indian team in the wake of the match-fixing scandal. The legendary captain did not take long to turn India into world beaters.
MS Dhoni and Anil Kumble took charge of the team a few years later. While Kumble replaced Rahul Dravid as Test captain, MS Dhoni replaced the latter as the limited-overs captain. After Kumble’s retirement, Dhoni took charge of the team across formats.
Ganguly was the most decorated skipper in the history of Indian cricket when he was removed from captaincy. But most of his major records were broken by MS Dhoni. The wicketkeeper-batsman had not only broken Ganguly’s Test win record as a captain but also had two World Cups and an ICC Champions Trophy to his credit. Till date, Dhoni is the only captain to have won all the three ICC tournaments.
Dhoni first led an inexperienced Indian side to the T20 World Cup triumph in 2007. He then took over the ODI captaincy, but he had to wait for leading the Test side as Kumble was doing the duties in the longest format. And in a recent interview, former India batsman Krishnamachari Srikkanth opened up on Dhoni’s captaincy.
Krishnamachari Srikkanth was the chief selector when MS Dhoni enjoyed a prolific time as captain. He reckoned that learning from Kumble really made Dhoni understand the virtues of leadership. Srikkanth also explained the difference of captaincy styles between Dhoni, Ganguly and Kumble.
“When Dhoni was the captain in the 2007 T20 World Cup, he handled the side really well, the win boosted his confidence. He has always been calm and cool, he has motivated the players. Aggressive culture was brought in by Sourav Ganguly. MS was totally opposite of that, when Kumble was the captain of the Test side, it was a good chance for Dhoni to learn. Anil gave him much-needed experience, Dhoni gave a lot of confidence to the players,” Krishnamachari Srikkanth told ANI.
Krishnamachari Srikkanth also credited MS Dhoni, for changing the power dynamics in Indian cricket. He said that Dhoni inspired a number of cricketers from small town to make it big in the game.
“When somebody like Dhoni made it to the national side, the powerhouses of Indian cricket started to change, a cricketer from Ranchi was a masterstroke, a zonal selector was watching cricket in the east and he saw something really special in Dhoni. He did not do something substantial in his first two matches and people wrote him off. But he played a 140 odd knock against Pakistan and it made Dhoni really confident.
“Post Dhoni era, we have seen a lot of players from small towns making the cut. This legacy will be very huge and it is a testament to Dhoni. The team was handed over in the right way to Virat,” he said.
