Star New Zealand opener Devon Conway feels lucky to have spent quality time with Chennai Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and is absolutely blown away by the aura that surrounds the Indian talisman. (More Cricket News)
Conway was one of the heroes of CSK's fifth IPL triumph and has in a couple of years become one of Dhoni's trusted lieutenants.
"I've been lucky to spend quite a lot of time with him (Dhoni). The respect is immense. Every time he walks into a room, there's an aura around him. You want to talk to him, understand what he has to say because of his status in cricket and what he has achieved," Conway told ESPN Cricinfo in an interview.
"Moeen, MS, (Ajinkya) Rahane and I spent a lot of time in the team room watching a lot of IPL games, talking about different teams and strategies, and in general, life beyond cricket. The relationship I have with MS is cool; he gives me a lot of banter and chirp, quirky one-liners. Now I've started to give it back to him (laughs)," he said.
It is the relaxed atmosphere in the CSK dressing room that helps a player perform, said the Black Caps southpaw.
"We were fortunate to play a lot of snooker late nights and early mornings. MS and I were in one team and would often play Moeen and his close friend Tanvir, practically his godson. And our games would start shortly after heading back to the hotel from a match to around 2-3am.
"We've shared a lot of laughs and good, constructive chats around those games and how to approach different situations and those sorts of things."
At a time when teams are getting immersed more and more into analytics and theoretical stuff with long and winding team meetings, CSK under head coach Stephen Fleming and skipper Dhoni restricts team meetings to 3-4 minutes.
"It's a great combination. Flem's learnt to cut team meetings down to the very bare minimum. I don't think there's often a team meeting that goes longer than three-four minutes, which is great. Not that there's a lot to say.
"Flem understands there's a lot of experience in the group, guys know what they need to do to win. That gives us players a sense of trust that he'll allow us to go out and express ourselves and the results will take care of itself."
And Dhoni is always there to add his cool quotient.
"The combination of MS' relaxedness around meetings and Flem allowing guys to go about their business to make sure they know what they need and what to do to win games is very beneficial as a group," he added.
