Mumbai: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, one of the most successful captains of the Indian cricket team, turns a year old today. Lovingly referred as Thala by his fans, Dhoni is one of the most loved cricketers.
He is currently playing with CSK. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is the most popular team in IPL with Thala die-hard fans all around the country. CSK is considered a superhit team of IPL.
In general, you will get to see Dhoni’s charm even outside Chennai. However, in the first auction of IPL (2008) MS was not the first choice of CSK. Team owner N Srinivasan wanted to buy another player.
Chandrasekhar, who worked as the chief selector of the Chennai Super Kings in 2008, had said that Mahendra Singh Dhoni was not the first choice of Srinivasan, the boss of CSK. Chandrasekhar said that before the 2008 auction, N Srinivasan asked me, who are you going to buy? I told him Dhoni, he asked, why not Virender Sehwag? Srinivasan’s first choice was explosive batsman Sehwag.
Chandrasekhar said that he told him about the utility of Dhoni and also said that Sehwag will not inspire to that level like Dhoni. He felt that Dhoni, a captain, a wicketkeeper and a batsman, has the potential to turn the match on its head.
Later, Srinivasan changed his mind and decided to buy Dhoni for Chandrasekhar but was apprehensive if any other franchise would spend more than CSK to buy Dhoni.
Chandrasekhar added that after thinking about the auction he raised his bid to $ 1.4 million and still tried to balance the team, because they had only five million dollars for the whole team.
But as the auction date approached closer, someone said that Dhoni’s bid could reach up to $ 1.8 million. So they decided that if the bid for Dhoni crosses 1.5 million, they would let him go as they had to buy the whole team.
Dhoni was eventually bought by CSK for $ 1.5 million. Since then, Chennai Super Kings have been included in the most successful teams of the IPL under Dhoni’s leadership.
At present, Dhoni is not only the captain of Chennai Super Kings but also the major brand and face of the franchise. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who won 3 titles to Chennai Super Kings in 2010, 2011 and 2018, tops the list of most liked players in IPL.
