Former India and Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni is regarded as one of the greatest strategists in the modern game, particularly for taking very difficult decisions with a calm head.
Backing Dhoni's legendary presence on the field as a leader, umpire Anil Chaudhary had claimed that the former captain used to get a lot of decisions right.
Similarly, his teammates have always been in awe of his consistency and judgement of getting decisions right in his favour during the Decision Review System (DRS) class.
Moreover, even after he stepped down from captaincy, his successor Virat Kohli used to blindly put his faith on Dhoni's judgements during DRS, so much so that fans had starting jokingly calling it the 'Dhoni Review System'.
Dhoni Review system they said , very well said pic.twitter.com/eYfAApamcO
— Jay prakash MSDian™ 🥳💛 (@ms_dhoni_077) April 8, 2023
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Anil Chaudhary answers: Does MS Dhoni have the qualities to become a good umpire?
Anil Chaudhary, who is an experienced umpire, having featured in plenty of cricket matches, both at the international and in the Indian Premier League (IPL) level shared his opinion about MS Dhoni's decision-making during a podcast on Shubhankar Mishra's YouTube channel.
The host had asked Chaudhary if the hyped myth of Dhoni's decisions turning out to be right always is true, to which the umpire replied,
"That’s not the case always. Sometimes it’s the other way around but he's close to accuracy. He has a lot of idea about the game."
More memorably, the umpire himself had been at the end of the famed 'Dhoni Review System' where the former captain used to take a review via the DRS, against the umpire's call, and more often than not, he used to get it right.
The incident took place during an India match where Chaudhary was umpiring, he had judged that Yuvraj Singh was dismissed and caught behind. However, Dhoni, who was at the non-striker's end was not satisfied and signalled his partner to take the review, which resulted in the umpire having to reverse his decision to 'Not Out'.
Chaudhary was impressed with MS Dhoni's accuracy in making the right decisions consistently. He opined that the former skipper could make for a good umpire if he decides to take it up as a career in the future.
"He’s (Dhoni) close to accuracy. Lot of the times he stops others from appealing. He can become a good umpire provided he’s ready to be inside the ground for seven hours."
He also opined that wicketkeepers generally have the best seat to view the proceedings on the cricket field, to view the proceedings of a match. He also revealed that umpires sometimes make their decisions based on the movement and actions of the keeper during the match.
In particular, he had praised the youngster Rishabh Pant, who has progressed from his early days, to now become the first-choice wicketkeeper in the Indian team.
"Rishabh Pant has also improved a lot from earlier days. It’s all about experience – you look at the replays and then reassess your calls. The wicketkeeper has got the best spot to keep an eye on, they’re still and can follow the ball’s trajectory. In fact, best umpires sometimes base their decisions on the movement of wicketkeepers because they follow the ball," he concluded.
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