‘He likes smoking hookah…’ – Former Australian skipper’s bold statement on MS Dhoni ahead of Indian T20 League 2023

One of cricket’s most successful captains in history is MS Dhoni. Dhoni has a great track record in the Indian T20 League as well, having led the Chennai franchise to four Indian T20 League championships. He is the only captain to have won all three major world tournaments that were played during his term as captain. In each of the first 10 seasons that Chennai competed under his leadership, they advanced to either playoffs or finals, except the 2022 season, and established themselves as a top contender for winning the league in every season.

Dhoni is one of those skippers who back their players during their bad times and shows faith in those youngsters and he sees the potential to do something. The Chennai franchise skipper has his own unique way of dealing with the youngsters and helps them make the situation easy for them during pressure situations.

You would go in and quite often find a lot of younger players there: George Bailey

Former Australian skipper, George Bailey, who has played two Indian T20 League seasons under the leadership of the 41-year-old, one in Chennai and the other in the Pune franchise, opined that under Dhoni’s leadership, there was an open-door policy for the players. While talking to Cricket.com.au, Bailey told that Dhoni had hookah or sheesha set up in his room.

“He likes smoking a bit of the sheesha or the hookah. So, he quite often would set that up in his room, and it was very much open door policy. You would go in and quite often find a lot of younger players there. For India or lot of other cricket teams, it can be hierarchical, but he certainly broke that down,” Bailey was quoted as saying on Cricket.com.au.

“You just find yourself in his room late at night chatting inevitably about the game or about different facets of the game or about different people and with different people it’s a great way to break down barriers,” the former Australian skipper added.