Is the secret of Dhoni's IPL success Srinivasan's astrologer?

Sport and superstition go hand-in-hand — Vijender Singh thinks that watching saas-bahu serials before a match helps his chances while Lasith Malinga plants at least 50 kisses on the ball in one cricket match. But it seems that the MS Dhoni-N Srinivasan collaboration doesn’t end with the former just playing for Chennai Super Kings — it has emerged that the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) chief’s astrologer gave regular advice to the CSK team management and the India captain during IPL 2013. [caption id=“attachment_1264111” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  MS Dhoni in action for CSK. BCCI[/caption] An Economic Times report says that Dr Venkatesan Karthikeyan’s advice on match strategy was sought by Dhoni — which included bizarre suggestions. On one instance, Karthikeyan asks CSK’s management to put specific deities’ photos on specific walls of the dressing room. He also asked that the management wear blue t-shirts during the match and that the opposition be given red towels. Most interesting though, is the advice (twice) to Gurunath Meiyappan, asking him to stay away from the match and not watch it in any format. CSK won both the matches in question. It's no secret that Srinivasan is a superstitious man. During the IPL in 2010, Chennai Super Kings travelled all the way from Dharamsala to Chennai, instead of going to their semi-final destination Mumbai, after Srinivasan found that the day was not suitable to travel to an important match. After a string of early defeats, Srinivasan had the team switch their dressing room and dugouts at the MA Chidambaram Stadium too. The report confirms that the ICC’s (International Cricket Council) anti-corruption unit is aware of the emails sent to Dhoni and Srinivasan — whose email is mentioned as md@indiacements.co.in. Srinivasan and Karthikeyan both refused to comment while MS Dhoni’s close friend and business associate Arun Pandey was quoted as saying: “Dhoni is a very humble and honest man and he will do anything to help you but when it comes to the game he is quite clear: he is the captain, he makes the decisions.” He was responding to a question over an email which had advice over the batting order and toss decision — and Dhoni seems to have followed the advice. Whether that was coincidence or evidence of the Indian skipper giving in to the whims of superstition is anyone’s guess. Click here to read the full Economic Times report.