Renowned auctioneer Richard Madley recalls MS Dhoni's 'game-changing' moment at 2008 IPL auction | Exclusive

Despite having retired from international cricket on August 15, 2020, MS Dhoni's popularity remains undiminished. The 45-year-old continues to be associated with the Indian Premier League (IPL) and could even turn out for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 2027 season.

Dhoni missed the entire IPL 2026 campaign due to a calf strain and also sustained a thumb injury, which effectively ruled him out of CSK's final league match against Gujarat Titans (GT) on May 21. It marked the only IPL season in which Dhoni did not feature in a single game.

The bond between Dhoni and CSK dates back to the inception of the IPL in 2008, when his name appeared alongside several other stars at the tournament's inaugural player auction. Renowned auctioneer Richard Madley, who conducted the auction ahead of the first edition, sat down with Mr Cricket UAE and recalled how the atmosphere inside the auction room at the Oberoi Hilton in Mumbai changed the moment Dhoni's name was announced.

"Well, I will never forget that memorable day at the Oberoi Hilton in Mumbai when the world of cricket changed. It changed forever. Remember, in those days the teams didn't even have names. They didn't have colours. They were simply identified by their cities. Then the name Mahendra Singh Dhoni came out of the bag, and there was a murmur around the room. You could tell that this was the player everyone had been waiting for," said Madley in an exclusive interview with Mr Cricket UAE.

Dhoni entered the auction with a base price of USD 400,000 and was eventually sold to CSK for USD 1.5 million. Madley believes Dhoni becoming the first cricketer to breach the million-dollar mark at an IPL auction was a watershed moment for the sport.

"There was immense determination from the Chennai franchise to acquire him. As the bidding kept going up and up, and we crossed the one-million-dollar barrier, I remember thinking to myself, 'This is game-changing. This is life-changing. This is the greatest change in cricket's history.' And then my hammer came down. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, sold to Chennai. That was the moment. Cricket would never be the same again.

"And hey, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is still doing it today. He's still active, still playing, and so am I. Who would have thought that 18 years later, the greatest Indian wicketkeeper-batter of all time and the original IPL auctioneer would still be plying their trade?" added Madley.

As fate would have it, that remains the only IPL auction in which Dhoni has participated. He led CSK until 2015 before moving to Rising Pune Supergiant for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. However, he joined the Pune franchise as a draft pick rather than through an auction.