“Stop the game!”- Ravi Shastri recalls when MS Dhoni’s football obsession drove him to fury

MS Dhoni, the former Indian captain, has shown several times that he has an obsession with the sport of football. Rather than that, he has been spotted mostly participating in football workouts before matches and participating in different football games with celebrities for charitable purposes. Former India head coach Ravi Shastri recalled a tale in which MS’ passion for football went overboard, and made him see red.

Shastri remembered an Asia Cup final match between India and Pakistan, in which Dhoni was just playing football here and there, sliding through dew on the pitch minutes before the match began. He yelled at him to halt the game to avert a possible injury, the former coach said that he had never screamed so loudly in his whole life before.

It is the first time I have ever shouted like that in my life: Ravi Shastri

“It’s a big hit with him. It is also frightening to see from the outside because of the ferocity with which he plays. You’re hoping against hope that he doesn’t get hurt. I recall that there was dew in the final of the Asia Cup and that we went sliding five minutes before toss. Those were the loudest screams I’d ever done in my life. ‘Stop the game right now!’ I shouted. In a game versus Pakistan, you don’t want to lose your most important player. It is hard to pull him off of the football field and away from the football field,” Shastri said on Star Sports.

In terms of Dhoni’s present status, he is now playing for his franchise, the Chennai Super Kings, as a normal player after stepping down from the leadership position before the start of the season. CSK appointed Ravindra Jadeja as their new captain. They have had a disastrous start to the 15th season of the Indian Premier League. They have lost all four of their games thus far, marking the first time in the history of the Indian Premier League that the Yellow Army has lost all four of its opening games.

CSK will play their next match against RCB on April 12, and it remains to be seen whether or not they will be able to secure their first points of the tournament.