‘Captain Cool’ MS Dhoni: Controversy’s favourite child?

Mumbai: The Indian Cricket Team’s ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni of late seems to be finding himself in the heart of heated controversies. ‘Captain Cool’ may not be living up to his epithet, with the recent collision involving him and Bangladesh’s debutante Mustafizur Rahman during the first of the three one-day internationals at Mirpur.

Read: The not-so-known MS Dhoni, what’s wrong with Captain Cool?

Dhoni appeared to have elbowed the star of the match (5-50) while scampering across for a quick single. Some reports have stated that Rahman deliberately came in the middle of the pitch, while views are divided among the public on how the Indian skipper should have handled the situation. In the end, Dhoni was slapped with a fine which included 75 per cent of his match fees, Rahim on the other hand, was fined 50 per cent.

Watch: MS Dhoni knocks down fellow cricketer

However, this is not the first time Dhoni has found himself in the midst of controversy.

IPL decision against Chennai Super Kings found Dhoni at the receiving end

During the recently concluded eighth edition of the Indian Premier League, CSK were facing Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians in the qualifier. Dwayne Smith was given out lbw in the very first over, even though replays showed the ball clearly going down the leg side.

Dhoni termed the decision to be a ‘horrible’ one during the post-match conference and was subsequently fined 10 per cent of his match fee. He did receive a lot of support after the decision turned out to be a shocker on the umpire’s part. But some did argue that as a leader, Dhoni should have refrained from his comments.

MS Dhoni’s stakes in corporate company

While the 2013 Champions Trophy in England was underway, Dhoni was accused of holding stakes with Rhiti Sports, a company that was managing him along with players such as Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha. The company denied the allegations and declared that he did not have any stakes at that particular time.

Veteran cricketers voiced out their discontent over the issue, citing Dhoni’s conflict of interest and advised him to part ways with his share in the company. Considering he was leading Team India in all the three formats that time, a few eye-brows were raised that it would be unfair to other players regarding team selections.

Did Dhoni take undue advantage of captaincy?

The year 2007 saw MS Dhoni don the captain’s hat. However, allegedly the reason behind Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid’s exclusion from the ODI squad for the CB series in Australia was because of Dhoni. Going further, during the 2009 T20 World Cup, reports claimed that there was a rift between him and vice-captain Virender Sehwag.

Dhoni squashed all such rumours, but then again in the 2011-12 CB series, he claimed that he can’t play Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in the same team, citing reasons that they are slow on the field. Sachin retired a few months later and Sehwag and Gambhir were dropped due to poor form.

The famous Yograj Singh- MS Dhoni fiasco

India star all-rounder Yuvraj Singh’s father Yograj Singh, in a scathing attack lashed out at Dhoni for his son’s exclusion in the World Cup 2015 squad. Yograj even went on record to say, “"I would have slapped Dhoni, had I been a journalist.”

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Yograj Singh told a Hindi news channel that Dhoni was nothing, but has started to consider himself as the God of cricket due to the media. “Media has made him great which he never was,” Yograj added.

Read: Mahendra Singh Dhoni's former coach retaliates against Yograj Singh's comments

But Yuvi cleared the air and tweeted on the same to clarify the issue. Yuvraj made it clear that he has got no problems with MS Dhoni and will congratulate him for becoming a father. This wasn’t the first time Dhoni was accused by a player’s father. Earlier in 2013 during the spot-fixing controversy, S Sreesanth’s dad claimed that Dhoni and Harbhajan were trying to ruin his son’s career.

MS Dhoni takes a loo break

It was an awkward sight to see Dhoni go off the pitch for a loo break that resulted in Test skipper Virat Kohli, for the first time, take over wicketkeeping duties without wearing pads during the first ODI. Call it fate or just pure skill, Umesh Yadav broke the 38-run partnership for the sixth wicket between Shakib Al Hasan (52) and the destructive Nasir Hossain (34). Did Shakib get distracted? He gave away an easy catch to Ravindra Jadeja.