MS Dhoni has at all times been recognized for his calm manner despite the fact that there have been episodes when even the good ‘Captain Cool’ misplaced it. Some of these moments have been captured on TV – just like the icy chilly dying stare to Mitchell Johnson after colliding with the previous Australia speedster or screaming at Manish Pandey on the non-striker’s finish for not being attentive to him. He as soon as angrily walked on to the pitch throughout an IPL match to confront the on-field umpires over a no-ball name, to go along with these numerous cheeky responses to journalists attempting to make their very own pegs.

However, one occasion of Dhoni dropping his mood has emerged in R Sridhar’s biography, the place the ex- fielding coach talked about how the previous India captain was left seething at his gamers. Dhoni, who has at all times set excessive requirements of fielding – one which went a good distance in India successful the 2011 World Cup – didn’t mince phrases wanting on the dropping shoulders of his teammates.

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“Getting back to my early days with the Indian team… following MS’ inputs, we began to get out fielding house in order with the World Cup in mind. We were playing West Indies at the Feroz Shah Kotla in October 2014 – a match we won comfortably but where we were absolutely shoddy on the field. MS was furious at what he perceived to be lack of effort and dipping fitness standards,” Sridhar, who grew to become the fielding coach in 2014, wrote in his e book ‘Coaching Beyond’.

India, who had misplaced the first ODI and have been trailing 0-1 within the sequence, took the second match by 48 runs however frailties persevered. Had it not been for the captain’s unbeaten 51 off 40 balls, India would have struggled to achieve 263/7. At one stage, West Indies have been cruising at 170/2, earlier than imploding to lose eight wickets for 45 runs and getting bowled out for 215. A visibly upset Dhoni had mentioned after the match: “I feel quite a few things are missing. We have to pull our socks up. We have not played to our potential. This game is a crucial eye opener for us. We are on the winning side, but we could have lost this.” As Sridhar identified, as soon as the crew returned to the dressing room, the gamers obtained fairly an earful from MSD.

“In the dressing room, he ripped the team to shreds and gave them an ultimatum, making it clear that if they didn’t meet certain standards in fielding and fitness, they would not make the World Cup cut, no matter what name they answer to. That showed me the kind of fielding culture he was looking to establish in white-ball cricket,” he added.

The match Sridhar is referring to is the second ODI of the notorious Windies pullout sequence. The tour which initially comprised 5 ODIs, three Tests and one T20I, was lowered to 4 one-day internationals after the third match was cancelled because of cyclone Hudhud. At the time of the 4th ODI in Dharamsala, the then-West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo revealed in the course of the toss that the crew was abandoning the remainder of the tour because of a pay dispute between the gamers and the West Indies Cricket Board.