Ricky Ponting spells out why MS Dhoni was great leader

Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting feels that there was a stark difference in leadership between him and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Ponting, during his time as Australia captain, guided his side to back-to-back ODI World Cup wins.

MS Dhoni, on the contrary, went on the become the most successful Indian captain who won all three ICC trophies – 2007 T20I World Cup, 2011 ODI World Cup and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

“He [MS Dhoni] never seems to let his emotions get the better of him, which is a really good trait in a leader — as hard as I tried when I was on the field, I could never quite stay in complete control of my emotions.” Ricky Ponting said.

“Indian teams always seemed to lift when he was captain. He always seemed to have this knack to be able to get the best out of his players. You knew that he had things under control, and his teammates loved that about him,” he added.

“I spend a lot of time in India now, so I know how revered he is in that part of the world. Even when you travel around the world and you listen to cricket fans, they talk about Dhoni and his leadership and how calm he seems to be under pressure on the field,” Ponting said.

Ricky Ponting who will lead Delhi Capitals as a coach in the forthcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) which is all set to get underway starting 19th September, stated that he is keen to face Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings in the T20 league.

“Chennai have been one of the most consistently strong and competitive teams in the IPL, and a lot of that’s got to come down to his [MS Dhoni’s] leadership as well. I’m looking forward to coaching against him now and making sure he doesn’t win any game off his own bat when Chennai play the Delhi Capitals,” Ponting signed off.

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