The Indian Premier League is around the corner, and preparations seem to be going in full swing, be it at practice sessions or in PR management.
While each franchise has amped up its social media presence, something peculiar about the Chennai Super Kings has stuck in the minds of the fans.
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Since 2008, CSK management has rallied behind MS Dhoni each year, with his name becoming the first thing to come to mind every time the team is talked about.
But now it seems that the franchise is trying to create its own identity, fully independent of Dhoni.
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The team’s social media handle uploaded an artificially generated picture of the players enjoying Holi, and guess what, there was no MS Dhoni in it!
Dhoni was not added to the image despite him being the team’s most popular player by a huge margin, leading to a massive backlash from fans.
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The dissociation of CSK and Dhoni can also be seen from the amount paid to the former Indian captain.
In 2024, he was retained for Rs.12 Crores, while the amount decreased to just Rs.4 Crores in 2025.
A far less portrayal on the team’s socials, a 2/3rd reduction in the tournament fees denotes that CSK wants to let go of its 5-time champion skipper to create a new brand around newer players.
It will be interesting to see how well the execution goes, especially for a team that has the words ‘Thala Dhoni’ as a part of its anthem since the very beginning of the IPL.
