The 'US$244 million' question: Can CSK’s brand outlast MS Dhoni?

MS Dhoni's biggest influence on Chennai Super Kings may no longer come with the bat in his hand. It now comes with the decision he makes for the team's future, the Zaheer Khan appointment is the latest indicator of that.

But underneath the shifting roles lies the question of how Chennai Super Kings can still handle the larger Dhoni question -- of keeping him around while preparing for life beyond him—as they still have sponsors to convince and brand value to maintain.

Nineteen years ago, Chennai made one of the boldest calls. Unlike the Mumbai Indians, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, or the three other franchises, CSK did not chase an 'icon' player in 2008. They placed their $1.5 million bet on Dhoni, the freshly-crowned T20 World Cup-winning captain, and it perhaps remains the greatest-ever investment in cricket.

Dhoni led Chennai across 14 seasons, where they made the playoffs in each of the first 10 seasons they played, and won a record-equalling five IPL titles.

CSK had been looking for a leadership replacement for a while. It was in 2022 that Dhoni officially handed over the captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja.

But the stint didn't go as planned; after just 8 matches (2 wins and 6 losses), Jadeja relinquished the captaincy, requesting Dhoni to take back the leadership so he could focus on his individual game.

In 2024, Dhoni was finally able to step back from captaincy for good. Ruturaj Gaikwad took over the role.

Dhoni remained the wicketkeeper, still guiding the players from behind the stumps and acting as a steady voice in the captain's ear. But he shifted to a lower-order batting role in 2024 and at times even featured at No. 9 in 2025, which then head coach Stephen Fleming attributed to a long-standing knee problem. A calf injury kept him out of the picture through IPL 2026.

Yet Dhoni remained tied to Chennai Super Kings, now through a role behind the scenes.

When CSK appointed Zaheer head coach on September 21, replacing Fleming, managing director and CEO Kasi Viswanathan said that while it was a collective call from the management, the franchise makes its decisions in consultation with Dhoni. Once Dhoni suggested Zaheer's name, the management approached him and convinced him to take the job.

Zaheer sees that influence continuing. "MS' guidance, I think, is going to be very crucial," he said in a video shared by CSK.

A brand built around one man

Dhoni and CSK have long been synonymous, and he is central to how the brand is valued. Houlihan Lokey (HL), the investment bank, puts the figure at US$244 million in its IPL Valuation Study 2026, which is 3.8% up from US$235 million a year earlier. The figure leaves Chennai at the fourth spot in the list of most valued IPL brand, behind RCB (US$312 million), Mumbai Indians (US$264 million) and KKR (US$245 million), the last by just US$1 million.

HL cited that CSK's growth has been the least in 2026, where they failed to make the playoffs for the third straight season, among the elite four IPL franchises, resulting it to slip below KKR. But the report found that the "the brand floor held", and ranks the franchise in the second spot in the league on business value, implying that "the commercial foundation is still solid".

Sponsors form that foundation. However, HL said, "they are not simply paying for cricket; they are paying for access to Dhoni's audience."

Pan the camera to Dhoni, playing or not, and the roar says it all. He knows it. In 2024, when Jadeja pranked the crowd by walking out to bat in his place, the stands gasped. Jadeja then turned back and let Dhoni walk in, gloved and padded, to a massive roar. Players say the same. "I keep hearing Mahi bhai's chants. If I bat higher, then the crowd will wait for me to get out," Jadeja said in 2023.

Amid Dhoni's "diminishing active presence", the HL report carefully plants the next question: whether Ruturaj Gaikwad and "the post-Dhoni generation" can carry the CSK premium into the 2027 media cycle.

Keeping the face, changing the role

Against the backdrop, Dhoni's changing role seems more like a pre-conceived plan with the franchise. Chennai know what it stands to lose when the marquee player takes a step back. "The franchises will be desperate to keep them as faces of the brand and faces of the teams, and to have some sort of a role within the teams," Indranil Das Blah, founder of AMP Sports & Entertainment, told HT, while subtly indicating that RCB might as well the face the same issue in coming years pertaining to Virat Kohli.

For Chennai, the priority is to ensure Dhoni remains involved, even if his responsibilities shift off the field. "It's very important that Dhoni continues to play a role, whether it's as a mentor, whether it's as a coach, but he's visible in CSK games and he's visible at the stadium when the crowds come in and he's shown on camera because then they can still command a premium because Dhoni is still an effective face," Das Blah added.

Star worship is not limited to cricket. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo took a sizeable fan base when they left their respective Spanish clubs, and introduced the larger audience to football in the USA and Saudi Arabia, respectively. It reflects how closely fans can identify with individual players, rather than the teams they represent. Hence, sponsors often write the marquee player into the deal.

"Most sponsors will put in clauses saying that, okay, if Virat Kohli is not there next season, then you need to either give us more deliverables or reduce the commitment, the commercial commitment," Das Blah explained.

A handover with a plan

The groundwork to concisely venture into the Next Gen started in 2025, when CSK started investing heavily on young stars. Dewald Brevis and the uncapped pair of Ayush Mhatre and Urvil Patel joined midway through that season, while Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma were signed during the auction for the 2026 season. Ajimon Francis, managing director of Brand Finance India, reads Dhoni's continued presence as a managed handover.

In senior jobs, he said, "they ask them to hang around for 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, whatever, to ensure that there is a smooth handover. That's what they did with Dhoni." The aim, Francis told HT, is "to minimise the dip".

Francis said Brand Finance's own IPL reports over the last two years too had shown "a bit of dip" for CSK, which he linked to "the uncertainty around Dhoni and then the team performance".

CSK's response to that uncertainty will depend on how effectively the handover unfolds.

Captain Gaikwad put it simply as the season closed. "Not many people buy the fact that we are a young and transitional team," he said. "Good to give them the exposure this year." His promise for 2027 was short: "We will come back stronger next season."

While Dhoni has been an inseparable part of CSK, Chennai is also the ecosystem that accentuates players like him, and Francis is confident that the brand will eventually go on to outlast any one name. "It's like Ratan Tata versus Tata Group. His legacy is still there, but he carried it for a particular time," he said. "It may falter, that is fine, but the brand purely remains with the CSK team."

Yet, there is a caveat. "If he completely moves out, then brand CSK will take a hit for a time period or so," Das Blah said.

HT reached out to CSK CEO Viswanathan on Dhoni's role and what the plan entails in the franchise's evolutionary phase, but he declined to comment.

What comes next?

Whether Dhoni remains with Chennai as a player or not, the association between the two is unlikely to disappear. N Srinivasan, the former BCCI chief who returned as the franchise's chairman last year, summed it up in 2021: "There is no CSK without Dhoni and there is no Dhoni without CSK."

For sponsors, the question is no longer simply whether CSK's premium can outlast Dhoni. It is whether the next generation can take over the baton without diminishing the brand's commercial appeal. On the evidence so far, Chennai has started preparing early.