Gary Kirsten opens up about his relationship with MS Dhoni

Speaking about Dhoni, in a recent interview Kirsten pointed out that Dhoni's loyalty made him one of the most impressive people he had ever met. Former India captain MS Dhoni and then Team India coach Gary Kirsten's partnership has produced some great results for the team and exhilarated their performances. 

From becoming the top Test-playing nation in the ICC rankings for the first time to winning the ICC World Cup in 2011, Kirsten and Dhoni's efficient collaboration and understanding helped the team to reach farfetched dreams.

"One of the most impressive people I have met, he is a great leader of people, he's got incredible presence as a leader, but the most important thing is that he is loyal," Kirsten said about Dhoni on The RK Show on YouTube. 

Talking more about Dhoni, Kirsten recalled an incident when Dhoni decided not to attend an event after the three South Africans in the coaching staff, which included Kirsten, were not allowed entry.

"I'll never forget, just before the World Cup, we were invited to Bangalore to go to the flight school, to go and kind of have a look at that. Obviously, we had a couple of foreigners in our support staff, and we got word back in the morning before the whole team was supposed to go - and everyone was looking forward to the event - that the three South Africans, which were myself, Paddy Upton and Eric Simmons, weren't going to be allowed into the flight school because it was considered a potential security risk by the authorities. So MS Dhoni cancelled the whole event. He just said, 'These are my people. If they're not allowed in, none of us is going'. And that was what the man was about," Kirsten said.

Kisten also added that he and Dhoni spent a lot of time with each other discussing important matters irrespective of whether the team won or lost and they managed to create a good working relationship with one another throughout their time together.

"He was very loyal to me, and I think he saw as well, there were times when we didn't always win games and we'd have some tough times. We'd spend a lot of time, just one on one together, talking through, taking the team forward. I think we built a strong relationship in the three years we had together," Kirsten added in conclusion on the RK show.