The BCCI's perfect cover-up of MS Dhoni's interests

“Nothing will be swept under the carpet, even if it is Dhoni,” Jagmohan Dalmiya, interim BCCI president, said in July this year. A few months later – in October – Dalmiya, himself, has been swept under the carpet. As for the probe into Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni holding stakes in a sports management firm (Rhiti Sports) that manages him and several other Indian cricketers, all talk of it has simply vanished into thin air. Dhoni had found himself in the middle of a controversy when it came to light that he had a  15 per cent stake in Rhiti Sports, which also manages Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha, apart from him. As we have pointed out earlier, Dhoni buying a stake in the sports marketing firm that manages him is not wrong in itself. But when the firm also manages Raina, Jadeja, Ojha and RP Singh — a host of issues crops up. And that should have worried the BCCI. [caption id=“attachment_1153001” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Even as the BCCI AGM re-elected N Srinivasan to continue as BCCI president for his third year, the topic of a probe against Dhoni remained untouched. Reuters[/caption] But even as the BCCI AGM re-elected N Srinivasan to continue as BCCI president for his third year, the topic of a probe against Dhoni remained untouched. It wasn’t even mentioned during the AGM – the officials had their own wars to fight. It was bad enough that they initially said: “We do not want to disturb our players, let the tournaments be over and then we will talk.” A probe done at the convenience of the accused is bad enough. Now, the cricket season has started again – immediately after the CLT20, the ODI series against the Aussies will begin and then the series against the West Indies before India go off to South Africa and New Zealand. It’s hectic and surely, the BCCI won’t think about disturbing Dhoni during a tour. In fact, a BCCI source told Firstpost that the probe may never happen at all now. “Ab rehne do, itna kuch bada thodi na tha. (Let it be, it wasn’t that big). Dhoni is a good cricketer, a great captain. Why do you want to trouble him? He has learnt his lesson.” A cricketer – especially because it was Dhoni – was simply not worth bothering, it seems. But they should worry about it because of the kind of message that it seems to send to other younger cricketers. They talk about match-fixing and spot-fixing as being the evils of international cricket. But if Dhoni’s alleged conflict of interest is/was real then the BCCI needs to go out of its way to sort out the matter. It can influence team selection, it can influence the selectors, it can even influence the president. Yesterday, in an interview to Mumbai Mirror, former BCCI president Shashank Manohar said Srinivasan has no intention of cleaning up the mess the board is in and that he only wants to shield those close to him. “He is trying to shield everybody, his team included. He does not want to clean this mess. If my son was in Srinivasan’s position, I would have asked him to resign. Srinivasan is an autocrat and wants all the power for himself.” And part of Srinivasan’s power is having Mahendra Singh Dhoni at his beck and call. The two are intertwined – at a personal and professional level. India, Chennai Super Kings, India Cements Vice-President. To gauge how close the two really are, Srinivasan’s comments come handy. “Why do you think people are jealous of CSK (Chennai Super Kings)? It is because of Dhoni. There was a savage attack on me (recently) because I have Dhoni,” Srinivasan said in July during a speech at the Alagappa College of Technology. Because he has Dhoni. That is the crux of it all. Dhoni is a great cricketer and without his astute captaincy, Srinivasan’s tenure as president might have been a complete disaster. The BCCI president has even said that Dhoni has no equal as captain. Meiyappan was just an enthusiast (the son-in-law bit is secondary) and Srinivasan went a long way trying to protect him. Dhoni is India’s biggest cricket star and is the jewel in Srinivasan’s crown. If Srinivasan could allegedly engineer a probe that found his son-in-law not guilty of spot-fixing then imagine what he would do for Dhoni. The report has also cleared Srinivasan’s Chennai Super Kings of fixing charges. Can Srinivasan take a decision on Dhoni without being affected by all the other links he has with the Indian skipper? Can he be impartial? Can he be fair? Given how he has managed to hang on to power despite even the Supreme Court’s adverse remarks – it is all perhaps a little too much to ask of Srinivasan. Meanwhile, all we are witnessing is a cover-up of the Board’s earlier comments. Did they say it? No Sir. Was there even an alleged conflict of interest concerning Dhoni? No Sir. It all never happened. Let us get back to playing cricket. Life is a beach – well for Dhoni it certainly is.