Dubai

For someone who had been a fiercely private person throughout his playing career, Mahendra Singh Dhoni created quite a stir by posting a number of his workout pictures in the gym on social media on Sunday.

It could be his usual business of tuning up for the upcoming series of One Day Internationals and T20 against England, but those who know him well feel it also puts to rest any speculation about the longevity of his playing career.

“There has been no dip in his (Dhoni’s) sense of pride in sporting the Indian colours nor his hunger for the game. Now that the additional responsibility of captaincy is not there, Dhoni will be eyeing to mentor this current batch to winning the 2019 World Cup,” said Arun Pandey, the former Indian skipper’s longtime friend and manager.

It’s been five days since Dhoni, the most successful Indian captain in history in all formats of the game, relinquished the captaincy of limited overs teams without a fuss — paving the way for Virat Kohli to take over the mantle in all formats. Kohli, on his part, was candid enough in an interview to admit that ‘MSD’ had saved his place in the Indian team on a number of occasions.

Mind-boggling portfolio

Thanking Kohli for his disarming frankness, Pandey revealed that Dhoni had ‘offended’ Mohinder Amarnath, then the chief selector, for backing an younger Kohli in the earlier years. “There was virtually nothing left for Dhoni to achieve as captain. The current team has evolved around him and he will now be keen to replicate the success of the 2011 World Cup with this group,” said the manager, whose company Rhiti Sports had been managing the mind-boggling portfolio ever since his international debut in 2004.

It had been a fairytale story for Dhoni, who from a sleepy industrial town of Ranchi in erstwhile state of Bihar, went on to become one of the most loved sporting icons of India and topping the Forbes list of richest cricketers for years on the trot. The journey was well encapsulated in his biopic: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, the Bollywood film which shattered several box office records late last year.

Pandey, whose Rhiti Sports had been the producer of the film, felt that the runaway success of the film was really unexpected. “The movie was an aspirational story and that’s what have touched the chord among the global audience. It’s difficult to fathom the way the film was accepted in countries in Africa, where cricket is hardly played beyond South Africa and Zimbabwe,” said Pandey.

Will the removal of the captain’s tag, in any way, affect the brand value of Dhoni? Strongly refuting this, he said: “Dhoni has already entered the folklore of Indian cricket the day he won India the World Cup in 2011. He had around 20 brands under him even before he was a captain and with Sachin Tendulkar at his peak.

Asked about a possible shift in the marketing strategy for Dhoni in future, the brand manager said they have become more “choosy” over the last few years. “Among the new initiatives that we had taken, ‘Seven,’ his sports apparel brand had done remarkable business in recent times. We are also going to launch him in a number of global brands soon over next few months,” he added.