India and Australia over the years have produced several cricketers who have not only excelled in their respective departments but also successfully captained the sides.
‘Mr. Cricket’ Michael Hussey had the opportunity to play under some of the finest leaders produced by the game, namely, Ricky Ponting and MS Dhoni.
Under Ponting, Hussey was a part of a world-beating champion Australian team which excelled in all conditions and against all oppositions.
With Dhoni, he donned the iconic yellow jersey of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for six seasons, before making a move to Mumbai Indians (MI) for a season, playing under Rohit Sharma.
Later, Hussey was retained by the CSK franchise and was appointed for the role of mentorship in the squad.
Now, the Aussie has drawn comparisons between the leadership qualities of Ponting, Dhoni, and Rohit, having played under all of them.
“They are all very different characters. Ricky Ponting was so competitive and led from the front and backed his players 100%. He wanted to win so badly and dragged the whole team along with him,” Hussey told Chetan Narula in a podcast named ‘HotSpot’.
With MSD, Hussey won the IPL season of 2010 and 2011; and won the 2015 title under Rohit.
“MSD… he has a great intuition for the game but he is also very calm and cool, backs his players enormously and shows a lot of faith in them,” Hussey added.
“Rohit was much the same. He is very calm under pressure and tactically very sound as well. All of them had this ability to take the pressure off players and I think that was a good thing,” the former Australian middle-order batsman reckoned.
Further, Hussey explained the different styles of the three captains with a common trait of keeping their composure during crunch situations.
“Whether the team is going really well or going poorly, they are just consistent and calm with their personalities. Ricky, for example, whether he scored a hundred or scored a duck, he was just the same person. MSD, whether won four games in a row or lost four games in a row, he is exactly the same person. I think that is a very good attribute to have from a leadership point of view and it rubs off on everyone else on the team,” Hussey concluded.
