MS Dhoni is hailed as one of the coolest captains with his insane ability to stay calm under immense pressure. The 2007 T20 World Cup final, the 2011 ODI World Cup final and the 2013 Champions Trophy final wins were testament of that.
From being known for his calmness, Dhoni is also known as a gentleman and one of his acts are still remembered even after 14 years have passed.
Dhoni, the former India captain had famously called ex-England batter Ian Bell after a run-out that was legal as per laws. The incident took place during the second Test of the four-match series in Nottingham.
During the second innings of the Test, when Bell was batting with Eoin Morgan, the former was run-out on the last ball before tea but was called back in the next session.
Morgan had guided an Ishant Sharma ball towards deep square leg as the batters charged for runs. Praveen Kumar tumbled to stop the ball and the batters were unsure whether the ball has cross the boundary. Morgan raised his arm as Bell went to him for a chatter.
The throw came to Abhinav Mukund, who whipped off the bails as Bell was near the non-striker's end to chat with Morgan. The umpires checked whether India have made an appeal and when it was confirmed that they had, the umpires ruled Bell out.
During the tea break, the then-England captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower reached the Indian dressing room and asked MS Dhoni if the run-out decision could be overturned. The Indians agreed to withdraw the appeal and Bell was recalled after tea.
Former India batter Rahul Dravid, who was also on that tour, said that it was a unanimous decision of the team to pull the appeal back. "In the laws of the game, if you follow them strictly, that was out, but it didn't feel right in the spirit of the game," he said. "There was a team discussion during the tea interval, Dhoni and Fletcher convened the meeting, and Dhoni led it. There was a feeling of unanimity that we should reinstate Bell because the spirit of the game was important, and that getting him out in that way would contravened the spirit ... If this had happened to our guys we would not have been happy about it. So all of that was discussed."
Notably, for the act, Dhoni was bestowed with the Spirit of Cricket Award by the ICC a decade later.