"Take your shirt off and bloody swing it around" - Mike Hussey recalls inspiring MS Dhoni incident from CSK vs RCB IPL match

Former Australia cricketer Mike Hussey revealed an interesting incident revolving MS Dhoni, where the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain urged the players to push for the Fair Play Award rather than the match result. The five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) winners are the current holders of the disciplinary award, and have won it a total of seven times, more than any other franchise.

Michael Hussey outlined how MS Dhoni used the Fair Play Award to take pressure off the youngsters' shoulders, and how the strategy used to often worked in bringing the best out of the players at times.

"Dhoni's got this beautiful way of just being able to take the pressure off, and I will give you an example. We were playing this game, Chennai Super Kings versus Royal Challengers Bengaluru, a big rival match. It is at our place, and the crowd is pumping. I remember standing in the huddle, and you could see the young Indians were like nervous as anything," Hussey narrated on The Overlap Cricket to Michael Vaughan and Phil Tuffnell.

"Dhoni just goes, 'Boys, it does not matter if we win or lose today. Just go and enjoy, smile for the crowd. Try and execute your skills, but the most important thing is that I want to win the fair play award this year. So, if we get a wicket and the umpire gives it not out, don't argue with the umpire, just get on with the next ball. If you get out and don't think you are out, I don't want to see any arguing. Just go and relax.' I remember thinking, what the heck are you talking about?" he recalled Dhoni's message in the huddle.

Hussey recalled being skeptical of this ploy as he believed that the players should express themselves on the field and respond to the events that transpire, but admitted that, in hindsight, Dhoni's approach was the right way of approaching the situation and handling the youngsters.

"If you get Chris Gayle out for a duck, get your shirt off and bloody swing it around. But it was not until later that I realized that he was just trying to take the pressure off these young Indian players. You could almost see the stress coming out off these Indian players. I think that is his greatest strength," he added.

MS Dhoni will feature in the IPL 2026 campaign for CSK after being retained by the franchise as an uncapped player ahead of the mini-auction.

"The net sessions that those two used to have against each other were something" - Michael Hussey reminisces about Dhoni's approach in practice during the IPL

In the initial years of the IPL, an overseas player who was a vital cog in CSK's setup, alongside Michael Hussey, was legendary Sri Lankan bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan. With MS Dhoni being a sublime player of spin, and often an aggressor as well in his prime, Hussey revealed that the net sessions were a riveting spectacle.

"I remember the early days, it was such a great experience. We had Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan) playing for us and a young Dhoni, and the net sessions that those two used to have against each other were something," Hussey recalled.

MS Dhoni had famously combated Muttiah Muralitharan in the middle overs of the iconic 2011 ODI World Cup Final. But the pair also played together in CSK colors for the first three seasons of the IPL, even winning the title as teammates in 2010.