MS Dhoni and Indian cricket’s superstar problem

MS Dhoni (L) and Chennai Super Kings owner N Srinivasan.

In 2017, when Ramachandra Guha resigned from the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI’s) Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators, he spoke of Indian cricket’s ‘superstar syndrome’, and how because of it, many conflicts of interest had been allowed to exist and even thrive within the Indian cricketing establishment.

Three years on, nothing has changed. We have still not found a way to reconcile the many conflicts of interests that our ‘superheroes’ manage to get away with. As we sing songs of praise to Padma Bhushan Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who retired from international cricket on August 15, it behoves us to also remember that once he broke into the mainstream of cricketing success, he also became part of the problem.

Let this not be understood as casting aspersions on the cricketing legacy of the most-successful captain of the Indian cricket team. Dhoni, who brought home two of India’s three World Cup wins, is the poster child for Indian cricket. As someone who wasn’t a city slicker, he pulled himself up by the bootstraps, worked for an honest wage as a Ticket Examiner for the Indian Railways before breaking into mainstream cricket, and has deservedly been called one of the best finishers in the game. He has earned the love of fans and teammates alike.

However, our unclouded hero worship of individuals is problematic.

In a game as lucrative as cricket in India, the streams of revenue for individual heroes must be kept under stringent and constant scrutiny. Dhoni’s close association with Rhiti Sports — a sports management firm that managed several of his teammates while he was captain — has been called into question in the past. His close association with N Srinivasan is another cloud on the spectacular horizon of his career.

In 2013, it came to light that Dhoni owned a significant stake in Rhiti Sports (the company even partnered with Fox Star Studios in the production of the film MS Dhoni: The Untold Story). While he was captain of the Indian cricket team, the sports management firm he had a stake in was also representing several of his teammates. The company also managed the marketing of Dhoni’s other team — the three-time IPL winning franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

The CSK was owned by India Cements, whose Managing Director N Srinivasan has been, at various times, Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and President of the BCCI. Dhoni has been with the CSK since the IPL was set up in 2008. He has led the franchise to victory thrice; most recently in 2018 after the ban on the team (due to the spot-fixing scandal) was lifted. His complete silence during the scandal was commented upon at the time, but he has since been allowed to explain it away as a tough and emotional phase.

In 2011, after a disastrous Test tour in England and Australia, national selectors including Mohinder Amarnath, decided to remove Dhoni from captaincy. Srinivasan, who by his own admission was playing golf that day, came back to veto the decision. Dhoni kept his captaincy, and it was Amarnath who lost his job in the fracas.

It is entirely possible that Srinivasan acted for the greater good of Indian cricket, when he saved the captaincy of the most valuable player of his IPL franchise. It could also be that Dhoni had no say in matters related to the selection of his teammates who were also represented by Rhiti Sports. However, it is important to keep in mind that the largest chunk of earnings for sports stars such as Dhoni come from outside the sport; based, however, on their place and worth in the teams they play for.

In 2019, Dhoni’s net worth was Rs 135.93 crore. He has consistently ranked on the world’s highest paid athletes lists (he reportedly made $3.5 million from salary and winnings, and $28 million dollars from endorsements).

Playing for money is what professional sport is all about; but manipulating the game in order to maximise earnings is a problem. The reason there are stars — in sport, as also in film and music — is because there are fans. Advertisers pay big bucks for the word of these stars because our love for them gives them the power to be able to convince us (fans) to change our brand of toothpaste or buy that brand of car, simply because they said so. It is therefore our responsibility to ensure that they do not abuse that power.

Hero worship has an insidious way of coming in the way of that.

Vidya Subramanian is a Post-Doctoral Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay. Her doctoral work is on the influence of technology on the Indian Premier League (IPL). Twitter: @vidyas42. Views are personal.