'I need a holiday' - Simon Taufel reveals how MS Dhoni stumped him with his response after being warned for slow over-rate

MS Dhoni fondly known as ‘Captain Cool‘ is known for his great temperament and tremendous composure. He has one of the finest cricketing minds and is often hailed as an incredible strategy thinker. There have been many instances in the past where Dhoni has bowled everyone with his presence of mind on the cricket field.

Recently, Australia based umpire Simon Taufel recalled an anecdote involving MS Dhoni where he became a fan of Dhoni’s calm and cool nature on the match field. Taufel is one of the finest and most respected umpires in the cricket world.

“MS Dhoni is one of the smartest cricket minds that I have come across in the game of cricket. I don’t say that because he is Indian, I say that because that’s the way I see it. He is an incredible strategic thinker and got a great cricket brain. But he also has great temperament and tremendous composure,” Simon Taufel said in a video posted by The Cricket Edge.

MS Dhoni’s hilarious response to Simon Taufel

Narrating an incident from a Test match in Cape Town, Taufel said that he was stumped with the way MS behaved when Taufel went to warn him about a possible one-match ban for maintaining slow over-rate. Sreesanth was taking 7-8 minutes to bowl a single over which resulted in slow over-rate. However, the Ranchi stalwart took the incident lightly and told the umpires that he won’t mind taking a break but Sreesanth would not be playing the next match.

“We had come out of a Test match in Cape Town where one of my good friends Sreesanth – had just finished playing a game there and we actually had to fine MS Dhoni for slow over-rate because Sree takes 7-8 minutes to bowl an over. The umpires and MS Dhoni were sitting in the dressing room and we were talking to him about over rates,” the 49-year-old recalled.

“We told him if he breaks it again in the Test match in Durban, he is likely to have a holiday. He said: ‘that’s okay, I need a holiday, I would like to have a game off. But Sree is not playing this game so don’t worry,’” he added

The former Australian umpire was amazed by the way Dhoni handled the situation as if any other cricketer would have been in his place he would have panicked on hearing about the one-match ban. Simon further said in the video that the former Indian captain was more interested in the quality of the black chair he was sitting on while talking to the umpires.