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'My name keeps popping up' - Dhoni

India ODI captain MS Dhoni has expressed indignation over how his name keeps popping up in controversies around Indian cricket

India ODI captain MS Dhoni has expressed indignation over how his name keeps popping up in controversies around Indian cricket. As captain of Chennai Super Kings, he was questioned during investigations around establishing whether Gurunath Meiyappan was a team official or if he was just being enthusiastic about cricket.
During court hearings, a prosecution lawyer had accused Dhoni of not being entirely honest with the investigators. The Supreme Court verdict on January 22 remained silent on any player involvement, but it established Gurunath as a team official involved in illegal betting.
Dhoni has never spoken about any controversy, but a day before India's crucial ODI against Australia in Sydney - a match they need to win or tie to keep reasonable their requirement in the last game against England if they are to make the final of the triangular series - Dhoni was asked if he was at least happy that the court verdict had put an end to the speculation. Dhoni didn't say much here either, choosing to reply rhetorically.
"I know one thing, irrespective of what is there, when it comes to Indian cricket, my name keeps popping up," Dhoni said. "This [issue] has been settled, [but] something new will pop up. It keeps popping up. I am quite used to it. If there is nothing, some speculative story comes up, big or small. I have to keep dealing with all these things. It is [just] the end of one story, something else may start in a couple of days' time, and you can monitor it."
Dhoni did have to deal with slanderous stories during the period. He even sued a news channel in March last year for defamation. Some of the reporting at that time was said to be based on information from interviews between Tamil Nadu police and an alleged bookie. Ever since he became the captain, Dhoni has been distrustful of news coverage in India, and has never sought to clear his name in any of the controversies he says are cooked up.
Even when Dhoni retired abruptly from Test cricket, the only official explanation was these words in the BCCI press release: "citing the strain of playing all formats of cricket". Coming so close to the World Cup, in the middle of a series, the retirement decision did draw speculation of all sorts all around, but Dhoni has refused to discuss it since.

Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo