MS Dhoni has great temperament and tremendous composure: Simon Taufel
MS Dhoni has always been known as ‘Captain Cool’ during his stint as the skipper of the Indian team and the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
In fact, Australian Simon Taufel, one of the finest and most respected umpires, is also a big fan of MS Dhoni’s calm and cool nature on the field.
“MS Dhoni is one of the smartest cricket minds that I have come across in the game of cricket. I don’t say that because he is Indian, I say that because that’s the way I see it. He is an incredible strategic thinker and got a great cricket brain. But he also has great temperament and tremendous composure,” Simon Taufel said in a video posted by The Cricket Edge.
MS Dhoni led India in 200 ODIs and won 110 of them while he was in charge for 60 Tests, winning 27 of them. As for the T20I format, MS Dhoni won 42 out of the 72 matches in charge.
Simon Taufel recollected an incident with MS Dhoni in South Africa
Simon Taufel recalled an incident when he went to warn MS Dhoni about a possible one-match ban as one of the bowlers failed to maintain the over-rate.
“We had come out of a Test match in Cape Town where one of my good friends Sreesanth – had just finished playing a game there and we actually had to fine MS Dhoni for slow over-rate because Sree takes 7-8 minutes to bowl an over. The umpires and MS Dhoni were sitting in the dressing room and we were talking to him about over rates," Simon Taufel recalled.
“We told him if he breaks it again in the Test match in Durban, he is likely to have a holiday. He said: ‘that’s okay, I need a holiday, I would like to have a game off. But Sree is not playing this game so don’t worry,’” Simon Taufel said.
The former Australian umpire felt that most cricketers would have been ruffled by such a serious discussion and a possible one-match ban but MS Dhoni was different.
Simon Taufel added that MS Dhoni was sitting in a relaxed manner on the black leather chair and was more interested in the quality of the chair.
He reiterated that it almost felt like MS Dhoni was more interested in thinking about taking the ‘chair’ home rather than talk or be concerned about more important issues at hand like over-rates and possibly sitting out a game.