Invaluable life lessons I learnt from MS Dhoni during my time at CSK

As much as I despised the heavily restricted movement and freedom that came with it, being in the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bio-bubble meant that I was never more than an arm’s length away from Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

I got my opportunity while working as an anchor-cum-producer for CSK during the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL),

Prior to the start of my stint, it goes without saying that I was eagerly looking forward to getting up close and personal with Dhoni. I had always possessed truckloads of respect for the great man but was drawn more to Virat Kohli, whom I’ve idolized.

I’ve found Kohli’s animated and fiery personality to be a lot more relatable than Dhoni’s cool, calm, composed, and calculated one.

However, come the end of my three-month stint with CSK, not only did my respect for Dhoni go through the roof, but I also started to idolize him because of the indelible impact he had on me by virtue of the life lessons. I had imbibed these while observing MSD go about his business both on and off the field.

What’s funny is that I picked up these lessons despite never having interviewed him over the course of the season. I shot long-form interviews with every single one of the CSK players part of the squad save for MS Dhoni.

Unsurprisingly, a significant chunk of my interview with every single one of those players was consumed by that player exuberantly extolling MSD’s virtues, so much so that I couldn’t help but feel that I had interviewed MSD.

With Robin Uthappa right after having interviewed him

Why didn’t I interview MS Dhoni, you ask? That’s because MS Dhoni does not do interviews, which is a great segue to my first point, which is that MS Dhoni baulks at the attention and the spotlight being on him.

Despite his prodigious stature, MSD is one of the most self-effacing human beings one will come across. No pretense, glitz, or glamour; but, quite ironically, that’s exactly what makes him so glamorous.

While in the bio-bubble, we had a barber assigned to us. During one such visit to the barber, I pressed him to tell me about some of the conversations he’s had with the CSK players while meticulously manicuring their hairstyles and/or beards. He told me that almost every player had very detailed and specific requests for how they wanted their hair to be styled.

The barber went on to describe some of those requests to me, some of which I couldn’t help but find amusing. MS Dhoni, however, was a stark aberration.

When I enthusiastically asked for more details on what he meant, he told me that when MS Dhoni came to visit him in the hotel hair salon, all MS said to him was, “Bas chhote karde (Just make them small)."

The barber told me that, upon getting that instruction (if you could even call it that) from MSD, he couldn’t help but chuckle; but, he wasn’t the least bit surprised given the simple man that MSD is. It was only upon the barber insisting that Dhoni experiment with something that’s more stylish, albeit marginally, than what “bas chhote karde” would result in, that Dhoni yielded to the barber’s insistence.

Even during social events such as team dinners and other recreational activities, he’d always possess the least showy demeanor. Through these examples, MSD shows, without even trying to, that simple can be very sexy and that being simple isn’t at all tantamount to being a simpleton.

Another feature that makes Dhoni such an unassuming personality is that he’s a man of few words. This feature of MSD was very apparent when I observed him during social events. However, I'd assumed that he’d be substantially more vocal during team meetings to which I, or any of my fellow members of the CSK Content Team, did not have access.

I was a wee bit surprised when, during an interview, Devon Conway told me that MSD is incredibly succinct during team meetings as well. He’s not one for verbose and animated team talks; instead, he believes that LESS IS MORE.

To borrow from what Devon Conway told me in this regard:

"While MS may not be the most wordy, you better believe that each of his words is worth its weight in gold."

As a side note, I ought to mention that I never knew Devon Conway was so poetic!

MS Dhoni drives home the fact that one need not be overly loquacious and vocal to put one’s points across. As author Robert Greene beautifully sums up in his best-seller The 48 Laws of Power:

"The more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control."

It’s because of the fact that MSD speaks selectively only when he feels that he has something valuable and significant to share, do people invariably stop to listen with rapt attention on the rare occasions when he does speak. I can’t think of anything else that drives home this point better than this anecdote that Kuldeep Yadav shares about playing under MSD.

Sometimes, when you say less, you could be misconstrued as being standoffish. However, I learnt from my interviews with the CSK players and support staff that, despite not being the loudest, most vocal, and outgoing person there is, MSD never keeps his room door closed and is accessible at all times.

I learnt that MSD’s room is the meeting point for all FIFA enthusiasts who could walk into his room at any time of the day to play a game or two (or three) of FIFA.

But it’s not just MSD’s simple and down-to-earth nature, and his accessibility, that makes senior and junior players alike so comfortable around him. It’s also the calmness that MSD exudes at all times that has an infectious effect on the players he shepherds.

Even when CSK was having a forgettable IPL 2022 season, the players were always calm. That’s because, even during the shaky times, the captain kept his cool by being a paragon of calmness whom the others could look up to for solace.

Having said that, it’s not that the pressure doesn’t get to Dhoni. He’s human after all, as much as his superhuman achievements might want to make us believe otherwise. However, he’s devised coping mechanisms and strategies to stay calm even when pressure might be trying its very best to creep up on him.

One such strategy, as I learnt from one of the players, entails playing his favorite board game on match days in the few hours leading up to the team’s departure for the match because doing so offsets his match day nerves and keeps him neutral and balanced.

But it wasn’t just MSD’s calmness that helped to settle the CSK players’ nerves. His mantra to always trust and follow the process (as opposed to fretting about the results) also inoculated the players against pressure and stress when the going got difficult.

In other words, he assured the players that as long as they were controlling the controllables i.e. putting their best foot forward in terms of the effort that they were putting in, they need not fixate on the results.

Even the Bhagavad Gita tells us:

"You have the right to work, but for the work's sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work."

In other words, if you have an unflinching commitment to the process, especially if it’s one that’s paid dividends on numerous occasions in the past, the results will take care of themselves - if not now, then sooner rather than later.

Speaking of focusing on the effort and the process, MSD leaves absolutely no stone unturned in terms of his preparation even at the age of 41 despite having achieved everything there is to achieve in the game.

Season in and season out, CSK start their pre-IPL practice camp a good month before the commencement of the season and well ahead of when the other franchises start their respective training camps. Who’s the man behind that decision? MS Dhoni, of course.

MSD is, without fail, the first one to report to pre-season training and, unless carrying a niggle, makes it a point to attend every one of the practice sessions leading up to the start of the season.

In an interview towards the end of IPL 2022, CSK’s current fielding coach and Dhoni’s former Ranji teammate, Rajiv Kumar, even attributed Dhoni’s fine batting form to his drive and commitment during the month-long pre-IPL training camp that CSK had organized in Surat. Rajiv Kumar had mentioned during my chat with him:

“Confidence stems from preparation, and there’s no one better than MSD who does justice to this maxim."

I could go on and on extolling MSD’s virtues but I’ll refrain from doing more of it lest I turn this article into a book. Thus, I’ll conclude by expressing my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to MSD for the indelible mark that the power of his example left on me.

I hope against all hope that, through this article, you were able to extract golden nuggets of wisdom that you, just like me, can put to good use in your life.