Last week, cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni made headlines twice. The first case had to do with a real estate scam. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court cancelled the Amrapali group of companies’ RERA (Real Estate Regulation and Development Act) registration for hoodwinking investors. As 49,000 homebuyers kept waiting for their flats, thousands of crores had been diverted to different projects. Two days later, forensic auditors told the Supreme Court that one such diversion was to a company promoted by Dhoni.
You get what you deserve
The boy from Ranchi, the one with no godfather, now has a reported net worth of around $111 million. Yes, he is supposed to be among the three richest cricketers in the world. He co-owns sporting franchises such as a football club, a hockey club, a motocycle racing team. He is also vice-president of India Cements Ltd, owned by the former International Cricket Council chairman, N. Srinivasan. And he lends his name to a slew of brands — it is said film star Shah Rukh Khan is the only one who has more endorsements than him; Dhoni has 20, SRK, 21. Dhoni was brand ambassador for Amrapali too, until 2016, when the association got a bit sticky. You might remember him looking you in the eye and saying; “We have our homes at Amrapali, because Amrapali is the best. And you deserve the best.”
Purse strings attached
Following the auditors' report last week, an all-India retail body wrote to consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan demanding Dhoni's prosecution. Reason: he had played Pied Piper to unsuspecting homebuyers. But before the outrage came the second headline. Former Team India skipper to prove his mettle on the trouble-torn South Kashmir turf, not as a cricketer but as a soldier. Left-handed batsman and now MP Gautam Gambhir was quick to praise. Something about Dhoni showing how serious he is about 'the uniform'. Kapil paaji chimed in too. Next thing you know, people were raising security concerns about Dhoni in the Valley. The problem with New India’s gods is not clay feet. The problem is they don’t have a leg to stand on and a purse where once there was a heart.