Do we like MS Dhoni?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean run on harm and a decent record off the field, held back from higher because he rarely speaks on public issues, so there's little to go on.
Dhoni is the old master of Chennai Super Kings, now playing under a younger captain, Ruturaj Gaikwad. That arrangement is what the latest noise is about. Manjrekar said on a Sportstar podcast that CSK handled Dhoni's role badly, called the fan culture around him sycophancy, and called his late-order cameos “a bit of a joke”.
The longest-running stoush is a case Dhoni started himself. In 2014 he sued Zee Media, two others and a former police officer for ₹100 crore over content tied to the 2013 IPL betting scandal. In October 2025 the Madras High Court threw out an appeal by the former officer, who had tried to get the suit tossed, so it heads to trial. In February 2026 the court told Dhoni to deposit ₹10 lakh for transcribing and translating the CDs the case relies on.
The other mess is a business split. Former partners Mihir Diwakar and Soumya Das sued Dhoni for defamation in Delhi over a failed academy deal, and a judge declined to order any interim restraint against him. Dhoni argued the suit wasn't maintainable and said he had filed a case in Ranchi alleging the pair owed him about ₹16 crore. In March 2026 the BCCI's ethics officer dismissed a related complaint about his academy, finding no evidence of a rule breach and calling it a commercial dispute filed late.
On the harm test, I came up empty, and I looked. Nothing turned up on LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, vaccines or the climate, and no slide into conspiracy or grievance. His public comments are about cricket: asked about retirement in 2025 he spoke of the “love and affection” he'd seen. That also means we can't tell you much about his views, only that nothing harmful turned up.
The good stuff is real if modest. In 2015 his foundation ran the Cricket for Heroes T20 at The Oval, with Rs 20 lakh going to the Indian Army to support wounded and severely injured soldiers. The foundation also teamed with Help for Heroes to run similar matches in India.
So the verdict: support him. The disputes are court fights between people with competing versions, and where an outcome has landed in these pages, it went his way or just moved to trial. Against that, a charity match for wounded soldiers. Being quiet isn't a sin, but it does mean the evidence is thin.