Steve Smith and MS Dhoni playing for Rising Pune SuperGiant
However, there was a dark chapter for our captain cool in the IPL, as his team, Chennai Super Kings, suffered a two-year suspension from the tournament due to spot fixing. Later, when he played for Rising Pune SuperGiant and led the team, which was owned by Sanjiv Goenka, he was also sacked from the captaincy disrespectfully, and Steven Smith was appointed as captain in his place. But do you know about the entire incident that led to Dhoni’s sacking?
Whenever a fixing word is used for the IPL matches, fans remember the IPL 2013 fixing scandal, where several notable players were found guilty. In May 2013, three players from the Rajasthan Royals, who included S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila, and Ankeet Chavan, were arrested by the Delhi Police. The reason behind their arrest was given to be on the charges of spot fixing.
To everyone’s surprise, Mumbai Police at the same time also arrested Gurunath Meiyappan, who is the principal of CSK and also the son-in-law of BCCI’s former chairman N Srinivasan. He was also arrested for the allegations of his involvement in betting activities. His involvement was not just normal, it included sharing team activities, taking part in betting, along with several other actions that could’ve played a major role in damaging the reputation of the tournament.
Following that, the Supreme Court set up an investigation, after which Meiyappan and Raj Kundra, co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals, were found guilty. As a result, Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings also had to face the heat, as these teams received a two-year suspension in the IPL, missing out on the 2016 and 2017 seasons, respectively. But to manage the eight-team format of the game, two new teams were introduced, which were the Gujarat Lions and the Rising Pune SuperGiant.
Players of both Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were drafted to the new teams introduced for the season. Rising Pune SuperGiant, owned by Sanjiv Goenka, got players such as MS Dhoni, Steven Smith, Ajinkya Rahane, George Bailey, and various others. On the other hand, Gujarat Lions, owned by Keshav Bansal, have players like Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, James Faulkner, Dwayne Bravo, Aaron Finch, and many more.
Rising Pune SuperGiant entered the IPL 2016 season as one of the two replacement teams. Sanjiv Goenka, the team’s owner, knew about the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, as he allowed him to lead the side. The team was expected to perform well in the IPL 2016 season, being led by Captain Cool, but their season faced various obstacles in the form of injuries, player form concerns, and much more.
RPS started the campaign well with a massive victory over the Mumbai Indians in their first match, which further led to increasing the expectations of the fans. But their form received a downward spiral, which came with the injuries of their main players. Kevin Pietersen suffered from a calf injury at the start of the season, which ruled him out for the entire season. Faf du Plessis broke his finger, which also led to his exit from the 2016 season.
To put more pressure on them, Mitchell Marsh unfortunately got injured too, which sidelined him for the rest of the season. Steven Smith was performing well but got a wrist injury shortly after scoring his first T20 century in the season. This left MS Dhoni alone with a few other players, but most of them had lacked experience in the shorter format of the game. As a result, Rising Pune SuperGiant finished at the 7th spot in the standings with just 5 wins in 14 matches.
Due to the injuries, there were constant changes for the team in its playing XI, which led to a fall in their performances and consistent losses. Ajinkya Rahane shone with the bat, scoring 480 runs for the team, but he didn’t receive the required contribution from the other batters. Along with that, their bowling line-up was also filled with struggles, as the bowlers failed to take wickets when needed.
Ahead of the IPL 2017 season, Rising Pune SuperGiant made a shocking announcement, as Sanjiv Goenka sacked MS Dhoni from captaincy and appointed Steven Smith as the new captain of the team. At that time, Smith was the captain of the Australian cricket team, and with the previous season under Dhoni’s captaincy, Goenka decided to switch roles for both of them. With this announcement, the Indian fans were shocked.
Sanjiv Goenka and Steven Smith received a lot of hatred from the fans following the announcement, and even in the IPL. The major reason behind the same was that Dhoni was never sacked from the captaincy, as he left it on his terms. One of the prime examples of the same was during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2014-15, where he retired mid-series and gave the captaincy to Virat Kohli.
Sanjiv Goenka said that he wants a young captain to lead his team in the IPL 2017 edition, and also ensured that Dhoni will remain a main part of the team. On the other hand, MS Dhoni maintained his calmness, as he accepted the decision and played the season as a player. The decision taken by Sanjiv Goenka came out in the team’s favour, as the team made it to the playoffs for the first time under Smith’s captaincy.
In his first match as the team’s captain, Steven Smith scored 84 runs off 54 balls against the Mumbai Indians, leading the team to win by 7 wickets. Following the match, Harsh Goenka, chairman of the RP Group, talked about Smith’s innings and also showcased his superiority to Mahendra Singh Dhoni. This tweet invited a lot of hate for Harsh Goenka, following which he also removed it from his Twitter handle.
MS Dhoni didn’t respond to the same, but his wife, Sakshi Dhoni, made an Instagram post, talking about the rules of Karma. In the post, it was clear that it was in response to the tweets done by Harsh Goenka for the innings played by Steven Smith. Her post got lots of love from the CSK fans, as they said that they are eagerly waiting for the team to make its comeback in the IPL 2018 season.
But under Smith’s captaincy, Rising Pune Supergiant performed well, and they even finished at the 2nd spot in the points table with 9 wins in 14 matches. They entered the final clash by defeating Mumbai Indians in the first Qualifier, but lost to the same team by just one run in the final clash. Captain Smith was able to dominate for the team, scoring 472 runs with three half-centuries throughout the season.
With the two-year suspension for Chennai Super Kings coming to an end, the team made the best comeback possible in the IPL 2018 season. Mahendra Singh Dhoni returned as the captain of the team, which was also labelled as the Dad’s Army, having most of their players above the age of 30 years. But the age factor also brought down experience to the team with the inclusion of players such as MS Dhoni, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, and many more.
In the IPL 2018 season, CSK had their campaign filled with consistent performances from both the batting and bowling line-ups. Ambati Rayudu came out as the top run scorer for the team, as he scored more than 600 runs in the season. MS Dhoni also went on a rampage mode, finishing the much-needed games for the team, with his best knock coming against Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he scored 70 runs off 34 balls to lead CSK to the win.
After dominating in the league stages, Chennai Super Kings also advanced to the finals, where they went against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium. Batting first, SRH set up a target of 179 runs, which seemed challenging for the team at one moment. But Shane Watson smashed 117 runs off 57 balls to help Chennai Super Kings win the final match with 9 balls remaining. This further helped CSK to lift its third IPL title, marking the comeback of MS Dhoni as a captain.
At this time, Sanjiv Goenka remained out of the IPL scene, as his team got disbanded with the inclusion of CSK and RR back in the tournament. Till the IPL 2022 season, he was nowhere near the cricket league, as he bought the team of Lucknow SuperGiant as one of the two new teams in 2022. On the other hand, Steven Smith, the former Australian captain, also suffered a ban from the ICC following the ball-tampering scandal.