Dhoni's tangled web and the 'show me the money' culture

There is an old-world charm to the narrative that today binds cricketing star Mahendra Singh Dhoni to Arun Pandey, the man whose sports management firm Rhiti Sports is in the spotlight following reports of a too-close-for-comfort relationship with Dhoni.

Evidently, in early 2010, when the sports management contract to manage Brand Dhoni was due to expire, some of the biggest names in the business, some of them with pedigree lineage, lined up for Dhoni’s custom . These included World Sports Group, IMG, Percept Group, PMG Sports (promoted by Sunil Gavaskar), Purple People and Planman Consulting.

All of them made heavy-duty powerpoint presentations to Dhoni, and doubtless promised big-money endorsements to the then newly-wed Dhoni, who already had claimed the status of India’s most valuable sportsman.

But having heard them out, Dhoni in the end plumped for Rhiti Sports, a low-profile company owned by Pandey, based on the relationship that the two men traced back to the time, more than a decade ago, when Pandey bowled to Dhoni at the nets.

Stories of upstart Davids slaying Goliaths almost always have a feel-good quality to them, and this one was no exception.

In media narratives, Pandey comes across as very personable – a desi version of Jerry Maguire, the eponymous sports agent character played by Tom Cruise in the 1996 film. Dhoni perhaps did not ask Pandey to “show me the money” ( in the way that Cuba Gooding Jr does in the film), but there was evidently no need for him to. Rhiti Sports signed him on for a Rs 210 crore contract for three years.

There’s nothing evil about a gifted sportsman who has earned his spurs signing on for megabucks endorsement contracts. But it’s obvious that somewhere along the way, the moral compass that presumably steered Dhoni’s career path onto fame and much fortune has become more than a little disoriented.

Nothing else can account for the incestuous relationships he has entered into, where his cricketing and his business interests overlapped to such an extent that it has become increasingly difficult to untangle the interlocking circles. Of course, it’s true that this happened in an ecosystem where the tolerance for conflict-of-interest situations was very high – as BCCI president N Srinivasan’s own affairs reveal.

But the maze that Dhoni navigated is truly byzantine. Not only was he the captain of the Indian team (whose administration vests in the hands of Srinivasan), he was also gainfully employed in India Cements, the company that Srinivasan owns. India Cements, in turn, owns Chennai Super Kings, the IPL franchise that Dhoni captained.

And, as the latest revelations show, he briefly had a stakeholder interest, along with Pandey, in the sports management firm that also managed others who play for the Indian and the IPL teams – whose cricketing fortunes were decided by Dhoni as captain for both the Indian and the IPL teams!

True, Rhiti Sports has put out a clarification claiming that Dhoni was allotted 30,000 shares in Rhiti Sports for just a little over a month in lieu of a Rs 3 lakh payment that was due to him. But the whole explanation only raises more questions that suggest that an artless attempt to cover the tracks is under way.

As this report points out , it beggars belief that a Rs 63.5 crore company that had “liquid assets” of Rs 42.5 lakh couldn’t rustle up Rs 3 lakh to pay Dhoni – and instead allotted him 30,000 shares evidently as collateral. The whole transaction was reversed a month later, but everything from the valuation of the shares to the atmospherics of the deal give sufficient cause to surmise that it’s all not quite cricket.

In any case, as has been established , Dhoni’s business links with Pandey go beyond just Rhiti Sports. Dhoni and his wife Sakshi are shareholders, along with Pandey, in at least three other companies – Rhiti MSD Alamode Pvt Ltd (which manages Brand Dhoni), Sportsfit World Overseas Pvt Ltd (which manages gyms) and Rhiti MSD-N Sports India Pvt Ltd, which promites motorcycle racing.

The filings in respect of these companies point to an overlap of interests between Dhoni’s role as cricketing captain and his interest in advancing his business, which is the classic definition of conflict of interest.

There is nothing whatsoever to suggest that Dhoni doesn’t give every drop of his blood, sweat, toil and tears every time he steps out on the playing green. Indeed, on countless occasions, he has played beyond himself and – except for a particularly bad patch last year – has proved a phenomenally successful captain.

No fair-minded person will, therefore, grudge Dhoni his megabucks endorsement fees. He has thoroughly deserved them.

But in allowing his business interests to interfere in his cricketing world, in a manner that opens him up to the charge that he put himself in a blatant conflict-of-interest situation, Dhoni has fallen from the stately pedestal on which his cricket fans have put him.

It’s true, of course, that compared to the egregious levels of corruption we see in every sphere of public life, this probably seems like a minuscule impropriety. But it’s tragic every time a hero trades enduring fame for tainted fortune.