Stephen Fleming's six-year partnership with Mahendra Singh Dhoni at the Chennai Super Kings has been a successful one but the former New Zealand captain rates countryman Brendon McCullum and Australian Michael Clarke as better ODI captains at the moment.
"I believe Brendon McCullum and Michael Clarke are the two best one day captains at the moment. For me, a good one day captain is one, who is really aggressive. These two captains, McCullum and Clarke, are really aggressive captains. They don't take their foot off the pedal and are always looking to attack," Fleming said during an exclusive interaction at the New Zealand High Commission.
So what kind of a captain is Dhoni -- instinctive or meticulous, the Chennai Super Kings coach said, "Dhoni is a bit of both. He is instinctive as well as he does his homework at the same time. He is not averse to taking risk."
With Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography 'Playing It My Way' terming Greg Chappell as "ringmaster", the inevitable question was where does a coach's jurisdiction end in a coach-captain relationship and Fleming said, "It varies from country to country and set-up to set-up. It's not same in two teams. I can tell you about my personal experience about when I was appointed captain of New Zealand.
"For the initial period, I let the then coach take command and guide me as I was new to the job. Once I was settled, I started taking more responsibility. However a proper communication between coach and captain is must," insists the former left-hand batsman.
On a different note, he was asked if he thinks Suresh Raina should get a shot at redemption as far as his Test career was concerned and Fleming sounded positive.
"Why notIJ Suresh is a fantastic batsman and has delivered consistently in shorter formats. I don't see why India can't try him once again in Test matches. I, for a fact, know that he has worked really hard in the last couple of years. About short ball, I think he knows what he needs to do and it's totally upto the player as to how he accepts the challenge," Fleming concluded.