New Delhi: CSK skipper, MS Dhoni, who is touted to play his final IPL season in 2024, shed light on the 2008 auction, where he emerged as the highest-paid player.
Notably, MSD rejected the offer to join a franchise as a marquee player and rather went into the auction with a base price of $400,000 and was bought by CSK for $1.5 million.
Since then, MSD has become the face of the franchise and led the Men in Yellow to five titles, the joint-most in the history of the cash-studded league. Chennai always put Dhoni as their top priority and retained him ahead of every mega-auction.
In the latest events, Mahi gave an interview to Star Sport, where he revealed why he rejected the offer to enter the IPL as a marquee player. The 42-year-old remarked that he took a risk and thought that since leading the nation to the T20 World Cup title in 2007, he would easily go for more than 1 million dollars.
“When the announcement was made for five marquee players, a certain franchise approached me to become one of them. I had to make a quick decision. As the captain of the 2007 T20 World Cup-winning team, I thought I would easily go for 1 million dollars. So, I decided to take a risk and enter the auction. If two out of the three teams that didn’t have marquee players showed interest in me, along with the other franchises, this would increase my chances of getting a higher price,” MS Dhoni explained to Star Sports.”
“When a cricket player becomes a marquee player, the franchise owner thinks that they have to pay 10 or 15 percent more to that player. So, in order to avoid this, I decided to enter the auction. This way, if any franchise without a marquee player bought me, I had a better chance of getting more money. During the auction, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bought me for 1.5 million dollars (approximately 6 crore). My strategy worked at that point in time,” explained Dhoni.