Dhoni-Rhiti deal, a curse for fringe players
Chennai Super Kings' Skipper MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina during an IPL encounter.
MUMBAI: It has been an open secret for ever. India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni
maintained a strategic distance but his association with Arun Pandey,
the face if not brain behind Rhiti Sports, was well known in top cricket
circles.
In 2010, he turned it into a business partnership by signing up with Pandey to market him for a whopping Rs 210 crore-deal over three years. It now transpires that the relationship went much deeper: Dhoni owns a 15 per cent stake in the firm, even if it was only for a brief while, as they are so feebly claiming.
Not surprisingly, Indian cricket has responded angrily, with players and officials crying foul. The company, incidentally, also manages Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha and RP Singh (who denied being part of Rhiti at the moment), four players who have been almost regular fixtures in all three formats of the game for Team India.
More than that, the preferential treatment that Raina and Jadeja have enjoyed under his dispensation at Chennai Super Kings has always seemed strange. Jadeja, in fact, was acquired for an incredible annual fee of $2 million. One can imagine the killing Rhiti made when the deal was stuck.
TOI spoke to a cross-section of players and BCCI officials and almost all of them conceded that the skipper of the Indian team holding shares in an agency that manages players in his team itself was not an ideal situation. "It should not be allowed because the captain does influence the selection of as team; in fact, overseas, he and the coach have the sole authority on team selection. Now, I can only think of all the instances that looked like 'wrong' selections in recent times," former Board secretary Jayawant Lele said.
"It is better that the BCCI deals with the issue quickly before it gets any bigger," said former India off-spinner Erapalli Prasanna.
Dhoni has shown a preference for certain players in the team, and this revelation has only added fuel to the fire, with many connecting the dots. According to his critics, many talented players have been dumped during his reign without a fair opportunity. Dig deeper into first class cricket and you can cull out those names: batsmen Manoj Tiwary, Saurabh Tiwary, all-rounder Abhishek Nayar, seamer Dhawal Kulkarni, leg-spinner Amit Mishra, wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel, to start with.
"With him, it's a question of like and dislike. If you are disliked by him, good luck to you! You can keep performing in domestic cricket, it doesn't matter" said a player.
Dhoni and N Srinivasan aren't alone in the 'sea of conflict of interest in Indian cricket' though. A Board member pointed out: "Anil Kumble heads the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) and runs a player management agency (Tenvic). When Dilip Vengsarkar & Co selected Virat Kohli ahead of S Badrinath in the Indian team, Srinivasan was miffed, and got the then Board president, Sharad Pawar, to remove that selection committee on the pretext that those who were office-bearers in the state associations could not be selectors at the same time. Now, the same Board has allowed Roger Binny, who is the vice-president of KSCA, to be a selector. Ratnakar Shetty, till last year, was a vice-president with the Mumbai Cricket association (MCA), while being the CAO of the Board. I can cite ten instances in Indian cricket where there is a conflict of interest. All this works according to people's convenience," he says.
A few voices, though, defended Dhoni's association. "I don't see any conflict of interest here. Unless it is proved that he has been influencing the players to join the company or is pushing the said players' inclusion in the Indian team, it is not proper to make such allegations. He may have a stake in the company but that doesn't mean he is guilty of foul-play. Can't a player invest his money in a business?" questions former India left-arm spinner Venkatapathi Raju. "Dhoni can have stakes in a company and that should not be looked in a different way. Dhoni is a captain and knows what to do. We are unnecessarily making an issue out of it," says Rajasthan batsman Robin Bisht.
In 2010, he turned it into a business partnership by signing up with Pandey to market him for a whopping Rs 210 crore-deal over three years. It now transpires that the relationship went much deeper: Dhoni owns a 15 per cent stake in the firm, even if it was only for a brief while, as they are so feebly claiming.
Not surprisingly, Indian cricket has responded angrily, with players and officials crying foul. The company, incidentally, also manages Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha and RP Singh (who denied being part of Rhiti at the moment), four players who have been almost regular fixtures in all three formats of the game for Team India.
More than that, the preferential treatment that Raina and Jadeja have enjoyed under his dispensation at Chennai Super Kings has always seemed strange. Jadeja, in fact, was acquired for an incredible annual fee of $2 million. One can imagine the killing Rhiti made when the deal was stuck.
TOI spoke to a cross-section of players and BCCI officials and almost all of them conceded that the skipper of the Indian team holding shares in an agency that manages players in his team itself was not an ideal situation. "It should not be allowed because the captain does influence the selection of as team; in fact, overseas, he and the coach have the sole authority on team selection. Now, I can only think of all the instances that looked like 'wrong' selections in recent times," former Board secretary Jayawant Lele said.
"It is better that the BCCI deals with the issue quickly before it gets any bigger," said former India off-spinner Erapalli Prasanna.
Dhoni has shown a preference for certain players in the team, and this revelation has only added fuel to the fire, with many connecting the dots. According to his critics, many talented players have been dumped during his reign without a fair opportunity. Dig deeper into first class cricket and you can cull out those names: batsmen Manoj Tiwary, Saurabh Tiwary, all-rounder Abhishek Nayar, seamer Dhawal Kulkarni, leg-spinner Amit Mishra, wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel, to start with.
"With him, it's a question of like and dislike. If you are disliked by him, good luck to you! You can keep performing in domestic cricket, it doesn't matter" said a player.
Dhoni and N Srinivasan aren't alone in the 'sea of conflict of interest in Indian cricket' though. A Board member pointed out: "Anil Kumble heads the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) and runs a player management agency (Tenvic). When Dilip Vengsarkar & Co selected Virat Kohli ahead of S Badrinath in the Indian team, Srinivasan was miffed, and got the then Board president, Sharad Pawar, to remove that selection committee on the pretext that those who were office-bearers in the state associations could not be selectors at the same time. Now, the same Board has allowed Roger Binny, who is the vice-president of KSCA, to be a selector. Ratnakar Shetty, till last year, was a vice-president with the Mumbai Cricket association (MCA), while being the CAO of the Board. I can cite ten instances in Indian cricket where there is a conflict of interest. All this works according to people's convenience," he says.
A few voices, though, defended Dhoni's association. "I don't see any conflict of interest here. Unless it is proved that he has been influencing the players to join the company or is pushing the said players' inclusion in the Indian team, it is not proper to make such allegations. He may have a stake in the company but that doesn't mean he is guilty of foul-play. Can't a player invest his money in a business?" questions former India left-arm spinner Venkatapathi Raju. "Dhoni can have stakes in a company and that should not be looked in a different way. Dhoni is a captain and knows what to do. We are unnecessarily making an issue out of it," says Rajasthan batsman Robin Bisht.
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