MS Dhoni used to prefer sitting with TV crew in the economy class during flights, reveals Sunil Gavaskar

Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni is known for his humility. Starting his journey from a middle-class family in Jharkhand to being one of the greatest cricketers in the history of Indian cricket. During his successful captaincy stint with the Men in Blue, Dhoni etched his name into the record books as one of the most successful skippers of the modern era.

The ‘Captain cool’ of India is known for his humble behaviour which he has exhibited many times both on or off the field. Be it his behaviour with ardent fans, ground officials or hotel staff– the 38-year-old has flaunted his humility time after time in the past. Another Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar has revealed an interesting instance of Dhoni’s habit of snubbing business class on chartered flights during domestic flights.

Gavaskar wrote in his column that Dhoni, despite being the Indian skipper, used to prefer sitting with the TV crew in the economy class. The Indian cricket team has a system of rewarding its top-performing players by giving them the luxury to take one of the limited business class seats in domestic flights. However, Dhoni, who was one of the top-performing players at that time, was reluctant to use this option.

“The Indian team has a lovely system of rewarding its players especially in home matches,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for mid-day. “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,” Gavaskar further revealed.

Sunil Gavaskar also lauded Virat Kohli

“Mahendra Singh Dhoni hardly ever sat in business class on these 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,” he added.

Gavaskar also heaped praise on Kohli for doing a similar act. He revealed that current Indian skipper followed the footsteps of MS Dhoni as there have been instances where Kohli has given his seat to bowlers who had bowled India to the win in the just-concluded match.

“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,” Gavaskar wrote.