N Srinivasan Says MS Dhoni Refused To Include An 'Excellent Player' In CSK

The former president of BCCI and head of India Cements, who owns IPL franchise CSK accepted that Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a man of instinct who does not believe in attending team meetings. Chennai Super Kings have won the tournament three times.

Rahul Dravid speaking at a webinar said that, "If you look at CSK's performance, they have really good access to data, and they have access to people behind the scenes, and they have run cricket teams at junior level."

He further added that, "They recognize the talent, and obviously they have a strong scouting process in place. But what they've got is a captain who truly knows the instincts."

Former Indian captain asserted that, "I know MS Dhoni very well and I hope he hasn't changed, but I know that Dhoni is definitely not one to look at the reams of data and statistics. We are completely awash with data right now."

Srinivasan asserted that, "For example, there are bowling coaches, so in a T20 game, they play videos of any batsman whom they are going to come against. So they're going to see how he got out, what's his power, what's his weakness, etc."

MS Dhoni doesn't participate, he's a man of pure instinct. Bowling coach (head coach Stephen) Fleming is going to be there and everyone is going to be there, everyone is offering feedback, (but) he will get up and go.

Srinivasan also said that, "In the sense of instinct, he thinks that he can evaluate a batsman or a player on the field, that's his decision. On the other hand, huge data is available to help an individual and interpret it as well. It's a very difficult line to draw (between data and instinct)."

He recalled how Dhoni had once declined to take "one excellent player" as suggested by the franchise boss, as that would have broken the team's unity.

He asserted that, "There was one outstanding player that we mentioned to MS, he said, 'no sir, he's going to ruin the team.' The cohesion within the team is crucial and see in America, franchise-based sport has been around for such a long time."