Linkup rumours to alleged involvement in fixing, here are five dark secrets of MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni is a stalwart of Indian cricket. His contributions to cricket are something that can’t be denied even by the biggest of his critic. MS Dhoni captained India to a World Cup victory in 2011, an achievement that the country tasted after 28 years. Along with this, MSD is the possessor of some rare achievements in the field of cricket. Besides his achievements, Dhoni earned fame because of his very calm, cool and composed presence on the field. But being such a huge name, controversy has also followed him during his career.

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Here are five of the dark secrets of MS Dhoni

Rumoured involvement in Spot-Fixing: The Indian T20 League was rocked by the spot-fixing controversy in 2013. This brought about one of the darkest phases in MS Dhoni’s life. Reportedly, the investigating officer of the case, SP Kumar found that a bookie named Kitty confessed that Gurunath Meyiappan had informed him that the cricketer had agreed to score 140 and lose a match. 

Dhoni has often been known to go about his business in silence. He chose to do the same in this case also, but his silence was misinterpreted by the fans and media persons. Later, during the return of Chennai to the Indian T20 League after two years suspension, Dhoni cleared the air in a program of the franchise and claimed non-involvement of any player in the matter.

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Strained relations with Gautam Gambhir: MS Dhoni’s biggest and most vocal public critic have been his one-time teammate and Indian star batsman Gautam Gambhir. According to Gautam Gambhir during the 2012 CB series in Australia, the then Captain of the Indian team MS Dhoni had a meeting with Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, and Sachin Tendulkar. The age of the trio was between 32 to 39 years.

 Thus, the captain expressed his desire to add more youth to the team and wished to play only two of the three players, keeping in mind the World Cup of 2015. However, according to the veteran left-hander, it was too early to be decisive about the World Cup. This probably led to the foundation of Gambhir having a bitter feeling towards his skipper.

Allegations of being hard to reach: The once star batsman and saviour of many Tests for India, VVS Laxman alleged that MS Dhoni is unreachable. According to the veteran, MS Dhoni did not pick up his call when he tried to reach him to congratulate him on his achievement. He also stated that though he has a good relationship, he does not have his current number.

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A similar allegation was hurled at Dhoni by Venkatesh Prasad when he was scraped off from the duty of India’s bowling coach. Prasad believed that such a decision was never to be taken without the team captain’s consent, and while he completely understood the decision on Dhoni’s part, he expected the cricketer to at least pick up the phone and explain it to him.

Alleged relations with Bollywood actresses: MS Dhoni have been married to Sakshi Dhoni since 2010. But before his settling down, there were quite a few rumours of Mahi dating some Bollywood stars.

 Actress Deepika Padukone was seen cheering MS Dhoni in some matches of India. Rumours were ripe that the two are dating in 2007. However, the two denied any such involvement and the rumours gradually died down. Dhoni later got linked with Preeti Simoes, the creative director of Comedy Nights with Kapil, and also with Raai Laxmi, a South-Indian actress and model. However, none of these rumours lasted long.

Controversial Gloves: MS Dhoni was seen wearing gloves sporting the Balidan badge of the parachute regiment’s special force. This was seen during the opening world cup match of India in 2015 against South Africa. However, the cricketer was warned by cricket's apex body as according to their rule, the cricketers can have only the sponsor’s logo on their gloves.