Former CSK chief selector VB Chandrasekhar recalls getting MS Dhoni in IPL 2008

Former India batsman VB Chandrasekhar, who has coached his domestic side Tamil Nadu too, was the Chennai Super Kings' chief selector and director of cricket operations when the first IPL auctions were held for the inaugural edition in 2008.

After spending two years on the sidelines, his former side is back for the eleventh IPL season in 2018, and with yet another auction just a day away, he recalls how CSK eventually acquired the services of the devastating MS Dhoni.

Following are the excerpts:

Before the auctions in 2008, Mr. N Srinivasan asked me, “Who are you going to pick?” I said Dhoni. He asked, “Why not Virender Sehwag?” I said Sehwag would not provide me with the kind of inspiration that the crowd will be looking forward to, whereas Dhoni is a captain [he was new as India's limited-overs captain then], a wicket-keeper and a batsman who can change the match situation on his own. So I asked him if I could look for him.

He said, “I would rather have Sehwag.” But the next day morning, he came and said, “Go get Dhoni.” I had kept an amount of 1.1 million for Dhoni with a total of 5 million to buy the team. However, someone in the auction had kept 1.3 million for him, so I had to reassess as to what I should be doing and how I should buy him. I needed to have the money when he [the other bidder] came to the auction. So I increased my amount to 1.4 million and still tried to buy the team because, with a total of 5 million for the entire team, 1.4 million would have gone for Dhoni himself.

But with the auction approaching, someone said that Dhoni would go for 1.8 million. So I told him that if Dhoni would go for anything beyond 1.5 million, I'd let him go because I couldn't let go a team, as then there would have been Dhoni and nobody else. Mr. Srnivasan was upset that we couldn't get Dhoni because somewhere he believed that Dhoni was the future and I had convinced him that he was going to be the future youth icon.

The video of VB Chandrasekhar telling the story behind Dhoni's acquisition is available here.

Mr. Srinivasan then called me and asked, “What do you think [about the price]?” I told him that I would buy him for 1.8 million. But during the auction on the next day, it turned out that Dhoni went for 1.5 million, which was the highest amount paid for an Indian cricketer then.