Not An Icon Player, Here’s How CSK Captain MS Dhoni Was Strategically Sold For $1.5 million In IPL 2008 Auction

Legendary Indian captain MS Dhoni had played all of 10 T20Is at the time of the first-ever Indian Premier League auction in February 2008. However, he had already emerged as a big name in the cricketing fraternity on the back of leading India to a T20 World Cup title just the previous year.

A brutally aggressive batter who had now proved his ability to lead in the shortest format as well, there was no doubting Dhoni’s iconic status at the time of the inaugural auction. Having said that, he was not part of a list of icon players ahead of the auction, which included names such as Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians), Rahul Dravid (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Sourav Ganguly (Kolkata Knight Riders), Virender Sehwag (Delhi Daredevils), and Yuvraj Singh (Kings XI Punjab).

Former ICC chairman and owner of Chennai Super Kings in the cash-rich league, N Srinivasan, managed to acquire sought-after Dhoni, but only after deploying a clever strategy which had MI drooling over him from a distance.

Here’s How CSK Captain MS Dhoni Was Strategically Sold For $1.5 million In IPL 2008 Auction

For the unversed, the first IPL season had witnessed the introduction of icon players. These players were the stars/legends of Indian cricket who could represent the franchise based in their home city. Moreover, these icons were entitled to receive 15% more than the next-best paid player in the team during the auction. All the franchises had been provided with a salary cap of $5 million to pick their squad (minimum 16 players).

It is worth of a mention that these icons could have only been part of their respective city-based teams after having the consent of all the eight franchises. Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Yuvraj were the four initial icon players designated by the IPL governing council. That said, later, upon the request of DD, Sehwag’s name was also included.

Dhoni, thus, was part of the list of players whose names was slated to go under the hammer. Srinivasan, who had decided to not go for any icon player for his franchise, had made up his mind to spend any amount to have Dhoni in his side. Registered at a base price of $400,000, the numeric soon went past the $900,000-mark. At this point, only Mumbai and Chennai were in contention to pick the World Cup-winning captain.

Hence, when the bidding amount reached the $1.5 million-mark, Indians had realized that with Tendulkar as their icon player, no way they could splurge 60% of the salary cap in acquiring just a couple of players.

“When it came to USD 1.5 million, I think they realised they would have to pay Sachin [Tendulkar] USD 1.65 million and [MS] Dhoni USD 1.5 million, five million was the purse and 60% of the purse would go on these two players. So, they stopped and that’s how we got Dhoni because I said ‘I don’t want an icon’,” remarked Srinivasan in an interaction with PTI in August 2020.

MS Dhoni Season Wise IPL Salary

Dhoni earned $1.5 million (INR 6 crore) each during the first three IPL seasons. Post the mega auction in 2011, the Super Kings’ management hiked his salary to INR 8.28 crore, which remained the same for another three seasons. In 2014, the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) raised the first-choice retention fees to INR 12.5 crore. Therefore, this is the amount which Dhoni earned until the end of 2017 (including the two years he played for Rising Pune Supergiants).

Ahead of IPL 2018, the CSK captain received a further increment, and his retention amount increased to INR 15 crore. Ahead of IPL 2022 mega auction, he was retained as a second-choice player for INR 12 crore.

Season	Team	Salary
2008	Chennai Super Kings	INR 6 crore
2009	Chennai Super Kings	INR 6 crore
2010	Chennai Super Kings	INR 6 crore
2011	Chennai Super Kings	INR 8.28 crore
2012	Chennai Super Kings	INR 8.28 crore
2013	Chennai Super Kings	INR 8.28 crore
2014	Chennai Super Kings	INR 12.5 crore
2015	Chennai Super Kings	INR 12.5 crore
2016	Rising Pune Supergiants	INR 12.5 crore
2017	Rising Pune Supergiants	INR 12.5 crore
2018	Chennai Super Kings	INR 15 crore
2019	Chennai Super Kings	INR 15 crore
2020	Chennai Super Kings	INR 15 crore
2021	Chennai Super Kings	INR 15 crore
2022	Chennai Super Kings	INR 12 crore
2023	Chennai Super Kings	INR 12 crore