Ganguly had to build a team, MS Dhoni inherited a team of legends: Former KKR Director
Former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Team Director Joy Bhattacharjya has weighed in on the raging MS Dhoni versus Sourav Ganguly captaincy debate, and stated that both skippers were great in their own right.
Speaking to Gaurav Kapur on an episode of 22 Yarns, Bhattacharjya highlig the contrasting jobs that had to be done by Ganguly and MS Dhoni. While the former had to build a team from scratch, his successor needed the man-management skills to captain an Indian outfit stacked with legendary players.
He said -
"MS Dhoni inherits a dressing room of serious legends, he has Laxman, Ganguly, Dravid. His captaincy style is very different from Ganguly's. Ganguly had to build a team. MS Dhoni has to manage a team of superstars and get them to perform the way he wants them to."
"He has to give respect to every one of them and he also has to prove that he is the boss. And he does such a successful job - the people management skills! Ganguly needed team-building skills but MS Dhoni had to manage the players who had become legends. It was a very difficult job and he did it well."
The MS Dhoni vs Sourav Ganguly debate
Many past and present cricketers have compared the captaincy stints of MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly, including the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Kumar Sangakkara, Kris Srikkanth, and Graeme Smith.
The general consensus is that Dada played a huge part in making the Indian team fighters, while Captain Cool took them to the ICC success that hadn't been experienced before. Gambhir recently labelled MS Dhoni as a better white-ball captain than Ganguly due to this very reason.
Sangakkara also recently claimed that the Prince of Kolkata instilled the fighting spirit in the side that hadn't been there until he took over, while Srikkanth insisted that Ganguly was a far better captain overseas.