MS Dhoni’s fans around the country were waiting for him to spread his magic for his franchise Chennai Super Kings in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League, however, due to Coronavirus, the BCCI was forced to suspend IPL for an indefinite time. MS Dhoni was asked to return back to his home from CSK’s training camp after the lockdown was imposed by the government.
MS Dhoni was last seen in action during the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand, where he failed to give the best of his abilities. After his debacle in the World Cup, a number of questions have been regularly raised over his future in cricket. Infact, the speculations of his retirement were so high that even BCCI did not keep him in the centrally contracted cricketers list.
Besides his poor performances, MS Dhoni’s MS Dhoni batting with different bats with different logos became the talk of the town. During the tournament, MS Dhoni was seen playing with willows that had the logos of three different companies naming – SG, SS and BAS. Recently, talking to The Scroll, the Marketing Director of SG (Sanspareils Greenlands), Paras Anand, revealed a reason behind Dhoni using multiple logos on his bat. He revealed:
“Dhoni’s agent approached everybody for a contract before the 2019 World Cup. The level at which he was with the other brands that he was associated with [sticker sponsors like Reebok and Spartan], that amount of money no bat manufacturer could afford. Unfortunately, no big brand came forward because they may have thought that he will retire after the World Cup,”
He added:
“Now, as far as SG, SS and BAS were concerned, he had an association with us from the start of his career. He started with BAS and then had a long partnership with SS. And then we also started servicing him irrespective of whether he was using our sticker. So the 2019 World Cup was his way of acknowledging us and saying thanks to the brands who supported him through his career,”
“We were worried initially; we thought it wouldn’t send a good signal to the consumers. But eventually, we realised that any publicity is good publicity,”
Besides Paras, the Managing Director of SS (Sareen Sports), Jatin Sareen, revealed that MS Dhoni gave a tribute to the manufacturers in the World Cup. He revealed:
“Through his career, when Dhoni was using bats that had sponsored stickers, many bat manufacturers looked after him. Then around the 2019 World Cup, when he thought he was going to retire and finish his career, he thought of giving a tribute to all the manufacturers that have served him by using their bats with their logos,”
