With the IPL getting suspended, India lost the chance to see MS Dhoni play again and for now, stories about him are all we have.
One such story was told by another former captain Sunil Gavaskar.
In a column for Mid-Day, Gavaskar elaborated on the hierarchy in the seat structure during India’s domestic international matches.
The Indian team has a lovely system of rewarding its players especially in home matches. As most Indian cricket followers know, during the Indian domestic international season, both teams travel in a special chartered flight from one venue to the next. The flight also carries the technical TV crew who have to rig the cables for the next game.
There are limited seats in business class and the captains, coaches and managers of the teams get these. It is here that those Indian players, who have done well in their previous game, get to sit there as a reward rather than the economy class behind.
He added that Dhoni would sit in the economy class, even when he was the captain of the team, to be with the ‘real champs’ of TV coverage.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni hardly ever sat in business class on the flights even when he was the skipper as he would prefer to sit with the real champs of the TV coverage, the cameramen and the sound engineers.
Gavaskar also noted how Kohli gives up his seat for bowlers who perform well for India.
Virat Kohli has also sat in the economy sector to give his seat to the bowlers who had bowled India to a win in a just-concluded match. These are simple gestures but they go a long way in building team spirit.
Earlier during the World Cup 2015, Australian websites had reported that ‘selfless’ Dhoni gives up his business class seats to pacers, so that they can stretch their limbs and feel better.