Face of Nation : The images of Mahendra Singh Dhoni using bats with logos of different bat-makers during the ongoing World Cup have already become quite viral. While the former Indian captain is mostly remembered for playing with ‘Reebok’ or ‘Spartan’ logo on his bat in the early stages of his career, in England Dhoni has been seen using bats with SG, SS, and BAS stickers.
In India’s last two outings against England and Bangladesh, Dhoni was using a bat with the SG logo. However, in the later part of his innings, he switched back to the BAS logo bat when he was required to go for some big hits.
It has now been revealed that Dhoni is playing using bats with different company logos as a goodwill gesture for when they have helped him in various stages of his career and is not charging a dime for it.
“It’s a fact that he has been using different bats with different brandings, but he is not charging them. He wants to say thank to them for helping in various stages of his career,” Dhoni’s manager Arun Pandey told Mumbai Mirror.
“He does not need money, he has enough of it, he is using those bats as a goodwill gesture. BAS was with him from the beginning and SG also was very helpful to him. Bade Dil ka Aadmi hai.”
Generally, A list cricketers charge approximately INR 4-5 Cr per year to use the sticker of a particular bat manufacturer with a whole lot of other clauses to go with it. Dhoni currently does not have a contract with any bat manufacturer since his deal with the Australia-based company Spartan ran into a legal dispute.
Vampire firm owner Pushp Kohli too confirmed that Dhoni does not have a contract with the firm anymore.
“It shows the greatness of the man for what he has been doing,” Pushp Kohli told Mirror. “Our association with Dhoni goes back to a long time and you may have seen this in his biopic too.”
While this is indeed a great gesture from Dhoni it does put into question whether the 37-year-old is thinking about retirement any time soon after the World Cup. Rumour mills are anyway running overtime with the impending retirement of the former captain doing regular rounds.
