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It wasn’t just the way the Chennai Super Kings management kept their former captain MS Dhoni in the dark over Ravindra Jadeja’s move to Rajasthan Royals as part of the Sanju Samson swap last season. Sources told CricBlogger that the relationship had already shown signs of strain four years earlier, when the same management went against Dhoni’s wishes after first handing the captaincy to Jadeja and then deciding to take it away from him midway through the 2022 season.
Dhoni was opposed to the decision to remove Jadeja as captain. Instead, he told the CSK management that he would guide Jadeja on the field and take care of things on behalf of the team. However, the management did not agree to his proposal. When CricBlogger reached out to the CSK management for a comment, no one was available to respond.
Sources further said that Dhoni also declined the management’s request to personally inform Jadeja about the decision to remove him as captain. The responsibility was subsequently assigned to a CSK official, who, according to the sources, did not even bother to inform Jadeja until days before he was removed from the captaincy.
Following year, CSK won the title after Jadeja played a blinder in the final and it was under Dhoni’s captaincy. “Once Dhoni backed, he didn’t have multiple versions. He would stick to his players forever,” the source said.
The fact that Dhoni and CSK are not on the best of terms did not happen overnight. Several decisions were taken without taking Dhoni’s sentiments into consideration. There was also a thought process within the management that players like Dhoni would eventually have to move on, and therefore, the way forward was to back the youngsters—sometimes without even consulting Dhoni.
What was once seen as one of the strongest relationships in the IPL has, over the years, become increasingly complicated. While Dhoni remains an integral part of CSK’s identity, the differences in approach and the decisions taken without his involvement have gradually created a distance between the former captain and the franchise management.
For now, Dhoni’s equation with CSK remains intact on the surface. But sources suggest that beneath that familiarity, the relationship has undergone a significant change—and the Jadeja episode was only one of several instances that contributed to it.
