MS Dhoni has 15% stake in Rhiti Sports Management: Report

India captain MS Dhoni has a 15 per cent stake in a sports marketing firm that manages him along with four other Indian cricketers, according to a report in the Economic Times. This raises the question of propriety and conflict and interest against Dhoni — as a businessman and India skipper. The firm, called Rhiti Sports Management, is set...

India captain MS Dhoni has a 15 per cent stake in a sports marketing firm that manages him along with four other Indian cricketers, according to a report in the Economic Times. This raises the question of propriety and conflict and interest against Dhoni — as a businessman and India skipper.

The firm, called Rhiti Sports Management, is set up by Arun Pandey, a close friend and business associate of Dhoni. According to the report, along with Dhoni, the firm also manages four players who play under the 31-year-old Indian skipper — Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha and RP Singh, who has sincedissociated himself from the company.

The issue of conflict of interest against Dhoni arises since he is the Indian captain and has a say in team selection involving the said players. Two of the players — Raina and Jadeja — are also part of the Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings IPL outfit. "There is definitely a conflict of interest in this case," says former cricketer Kirti Azad, who was also a selector in 2002-03. "The players managed by Dhoni's company will have an unfair advantage," said another former India cricketer Maninder Singh, in agreement.

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