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Gary Kirsten stories: When MS Dhoni cancelled Team India event in Bengaluru after coach wasn't allowed entry

Gary Kirsten stories: Mentoring Virat Kohli, bonding with MS Dhoni, helping Sachin Tendulkar enjoy cricket. Kirsten is one of the most successful coaches of Team India.

Virat Kohli was fortunate to have a pragmatic coach like Gary Kirsten early in his career

Bengaluru, July 14: Gary Kirsten will go down in history as one of the most successful coaches of Indian cricket team having guided them to 2011 World Cup and to the pinnacle of Test cricket. Under the tutelage of Kirsten, Dhoni's captaincy bloomed to its full and Virat Kohli began his journey to greatness.

Unlike his predecessor Greg Chappell, Gary Kirsten also managed to keep senior players like Sachin Tendulkar on his side. Kirsten details his journey with the Indian team during a chat with Radhakrishnan Sreenivasan in his YouTube programme 'The RK Show.'

3. Kirsten's partnership with Dhoni

3. Kirsten's partnership with Dhoni

Kirsten went on to become one of the most successful India coaches of all time, guiding the side to the top of the Test rankings in 2009, and then to the World Cup title two years later. The coach heaped praise on Dhoni and said they complemented each other as leaders.

"He's one of the most impressive people that I have met. I think he is a great leader of people, he's got an incredible presence. I think he's loyal, and that's the most important thing.

"I'll never forget, just before the World Cup we were invited in Bangalore to go to the flight school there. We got word back on the morning before the whole team was meant to go - and everyone was looking forward to the event - that the three South Africans, which was myself, Paddy Upton and Eric Simons, weren't going to be allowed into the flight school because it was seen as a potential security risk. So, MS cancelled the whole event. He said these are my people, if they are not allowed in, none of us are going.

"That was what he was about. He was very loyal to me. We built a strong relationship in the three years we had together," Kirsten said.

1. Mentoring Virat Kohli

1. Mentoring Virat Kohli

"When I met Virat first up, he had great abilities and talent and he was a young guy. But I kind of knew straight away that he wasn't operating in the best version of himself. So we had a number of discussions."When we were playing an ODI series against Sri Lanka, and he was batting beautifully and he was on 30-odd not out. He then decided that he would try and hit the (bowler) over long on's head for six. And he got holed out. I just said to him, "If you're going to take your cricket to the next level, you need to hit that ball down the ground for one. You know you can hit a lot of balls up the ground, but there's a lot of risk attached to that." I think he took that on board, he got a hundred in the next one-day in Kolkata.

Our relationship was formulated around him as a young player coming in, and me trying to say to him that he has a long way to go and to build in some consistent behaviours into the way he played this game," said Kirsten

2. Sachin Tendulkar and Kirsten

2. Sachin Tendulkar and Kirsten

The South African also spoke about his relationship with Sachin Tendulkar and how he motivated the Indian batsman when he was contemplating quitting the sport. "He wasn't enjoying himself, it's as simple as that. When we go to the absolute basics of why we play the game, it's because we really enjoy ourselves even though it might get really hard sometimes. When we stop enjoying ourselves, we don't want to play anymore, we lose the motivation to play."

"So my prime responsibility was to get him to enjoy himself. That was the first part of it. The second part of it was that in a coach or a leader, he wanted a friend. He wanted someone that he could converse with and talk about his game to. I just happened to be the right person at the right time for that.

"I just really enjoyed working with Sachin - a very gentle person, highly professional and competitive around his own game. I kept asking him questions pretty much every day about his game. I think our relationship developed because of that. He got the joy back into the game and he got 18 international hundreds in the three years that I was with the Indian team and that is a remarkable effort," Kirsten added.

4. Kirsten and Indian cricket

4. Kirsten and Indian cricket

Even after his days as coach of India, Kirsten continued to his alliance with Indian cricket through IPL. He coached Delhi Daredevils (Capitals) and then for a season worked as cricket director of Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Story first published: Wednesday, July 15, 2020, 19:55 [IST]
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