Chennai Franchise’s Owner Opens Up On MS Dhoni’s Addition in 2008
N Sreenivasan and MS Dhoni (Image Source: Twitter)
Since the introduction of the Indian T20 League in 2008, Chennai has become a force to reckon with. However, MS Dhoni has been instrumental in this long run so far as his leadership capabilities have given so much success to this franchise.
Now, speaking about this journey at Sportstar’s first-ever South Sports Conclave, Chennai franchise owner, N.Srinivasan recalled the incident when they picked Dhoni in the first-ever auction in 2008 over others.
“At any price, I wanted M.S. Dhoni” – MS Dhoni
Speaking about the incident, Srinivasan said that it was back in 2007 when India came back after a long tour of England under Rahul Dravid. He said: “He wanted to resign as the captain. He had come back from England and was not satisfied. I told if you give up the captaincy, they will drop you from the Indian ODI team. What I said happened,”
After that, he said that the Indian Cricket Board went to Sachin. But, as he refused captaincy, the Board went for MS Dhoni. “After Dravid resigned, Board president Sharad Pawar immediately called up Sachin. Sachin said he will not be the captain. Then who? He looked around the room and pointed at this tall fellow with hair up to his knees – MS Dhoni. The idea was not that he would succeed. Almost facetiously Sachin pointed towards MS Dhoni. The rest is history. He went on and won the World Cup,” Srinivasan added.
After winning the 20-20 World Cup in 2007, it was going to be a fight to take Dhoni in a team and Srinivasan was well aware of that. He said: “At the Indian T20 League auction, I missed the first two picks. I had asked V.B. Chandrasekhar — former Test cricketer from Tamil Nadu and aggressive opening bat — to hold the baton. At any price, I wanted M.S. Dhoni. The reason I felt very confident was that I felt the other people did not know arithmetic,”
He also added: “They had said that they will give 10% more to the icon player because they all wanted an icon. Punjab wanted Yuvraj Singh, Delhi wanted Virender Sehwag, Bangalore Rahul Dravid, Mumbai Sachin Tendulkar. They asked me, I said no because my father taught me some arithmetic. I figured out that if 1.5 million out of five million went to the icon players, and 10% more to the other player, that is 3.65 million. Then what are you left with to get the rest of the 22 players.”
However, Srinivasan also opened up on the plan which outsmarted the Mumbai franchise during the bidding war for the former Indian Captain. “Mumbai was bidding up to 1.5 million for Dhoni. Then they realized that they have to give 10% more to the icon player than what they give to the most expensive player. They said that is 3.5 million, everything was gone, and they collapsed. And that is how MS Dhoni came to Chennai. It was 100% arithmetic. No other reason why we got him. Their anxiety to get their favourite player was greater than their arithmetic.” he concluded.
