In October 2006 when I worked with Team India I didn’t know anything about young Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but after my first session with him I was very impressed with the clarity of his thinking and the way he handled the pressure that I placed on him.
I immediately told coach Greg Chappell that I thought he had the right stuff to become a good player and the mental strength to become a good leader.
His achievements over the years as captain of India did not surprise me. He led Team India in all three formats of the game, won the T20 World Cup, the ODI World Cup and took his team to the number one position in Test cricket. Not many captains can boast of such achievements. And he did these things with a team that was just above average in fielding and bowling.
In some ways, Dhoni is like the late Sir Frank Worrell, the great West Indies captain. Worrell set the stage for Clive Lloyd who later transformed his West Indies team into a champion team. Dhoni, who has just retired from Test cricket, has also set the stage for Virat Kohli to do the same thing.
Dhoni helped to change the thinking and self-image of his players and this enabled them to develop a healthy level of self-belief and self-confidence. The Indian players are now formidable warriors who will stand toe to toe with any of their opponents. If they learn to concentrate better under pressure and execute the basics with sensible and controlled aggression they will do well.
Some teams get distracted, lose control and make repeated mistakes in times of crisis while others maintain their composure and concentration and play better.
I once worked with an Australian Rules football coach who often instructed his players to start a fight whenever they were losing. He did this to get the opponents angry, to change their momentum and to break their concentration.
He trained his players to capitalise on their opponents’ anger, loss of concentration and mistakes by focusing on the execution of the basics the moment the fight ended. His team hardly ever lost these games. He was a wise and cunning leader who told his players not to say or do anything to opponents that will motivate them to play better and beat you.
Pressuring opponents into making mistakes is one of the keys to success. M.S. Dhoni once told me that the main difference between great teams and the others is the interval between mistakes. Great teams make mistakes, learn from them and hardly ever repeat them. The lesser teams repeat them at regular intervals.
The successful team is the one that knows how to maintain concentration and how best to handle the pressures of the day and the situations about to land upon them, the team that is able to gauge when the pressures are being applied to them and when they must be applied to others.
To be a successful leader Kohli must learn how to control his emotions, concentration, aggression and motivational skills in the heat of battle. If he loses control at these times so might his players. A leaf out of Dhoni’s book in this respect could be useful.
Kohli should also spend some time thinking about what his team stands for and believes in – its values and priorities – because the team’s values and beliefs provide the energy and discipline that drive players towards the team’s goals. The power of belief and values in controlling behaviour and performance cannot be overestimated.
Beliefs and values are to cricketers what roots are to the trees. Without strong roots trees fall when they are shaken by powerful winds. Without values and beliefs players’ performance falls apart when it is hit by the strong winds of competition and pressure.
According to Dhoni, good leadership starts with self-leadership. He feels that the captain must not only know his players and what makes them tick but he must also know himself and be in control of himself especially when things get tough since players replicate the behaviour of their leader in these situations.
To build a disciplined unit Dhoni stresses that the captain must lead by example to get the trust, respect and support of his players.
He adds: “The people I lead carry the expectations of 1.2 billion people, so I help them by keeping everything as simple as possible and by creating a learning environment and an atmosphere that will give confidence and motivation to each and every one to do his best.”
Vision without discipline is just a dream. Self-discipline and self-control create the energy that takes you to your goals. In the end, it is the depth of your discipline and motivation that determines the level of your success.
Kohli has some big boots to fill but he can make his job easier by adopting and building on the important values that brought Dhoni and Team India their success.
Rudi Webster is a sports psychologist and former West Indies team manager in World Series Cricket (WSC).
