The rookie behind Brand Dhoni

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A maze of tight corners leads to a posh but cramped four-storey accommodation at the very edge of downtown Delhi. The Qutab Minar can be spotted at a distance, but other than that, the surroundings feel removed from the hysterical pace of the city.

No one would guess that India’s largest ever sports marketing deal — beating the Rs 180-crore contract Sachin Tendulkar signed in 2006 — was conceived in the basement here.

The only thing identifying the “office” from other basements of the neighbouring houses in the colony is a white plastic board on which it is written — with a sketch pen — “Rhiti Sports”.

The company that landed the record Rs 200 crore deal beating off competition from global giants like Percept, Sunil Gavaskar-promoted PMG, World Sport Group and Planman, is so new in sports management, that before team India skipper M. S. Dhoni chose it to handle his endorsements, nobody even knew Rhiti Sports existed. The industry’s still in shock, even a month after the coup.

But not Arun Pandey, MSD’s old friend and now, new manager, who has re-jigged the corporate contract sweepstakes in a single move. “People ask me why he picked a rookie like me. What they don’t see is the whole picture: Dhoni had become extremely frustrated with the professionals in the industry who confused him with hyperbole,” says Rhiti Sports president Pandey, one part of the three-way partnership handling the Indian skipper, the other two being Rhiti’s marketing man Sangeet Shirodkar and Mindscapes One head Pratik Sen.

“It was time for him to fall back on people whom he could trust and be comfortable with,” he added.

Cricket connection

The brain behind the deal is Pandey and he and Dhoni go back a long way. “I met Dhoni in 2000, when I shifted from the UP Ranji team to Jharkhand. He had this reputation of a slogger and so at the nets, the fast bowlers would avoid bowling to him. Since I was new and bowled left-arm spin, I would end up giving him batting practice more often than not.”

From playing cricket together and harbouring dreams of turning out for the Indian team at some point, the two took separate roads, but never drifted apart. When Dhoni landed the captaincy, he called his pal for help. “He kept pushing me to start the company so that I could take care of his business affairs. Even I wasn’t confident then.”

Rhiti Sports started in 2007, but the only player Pandey could get for the next three years was R. P. Singh, and that too had borne out of an old friendship — the two had played Ranji together for a while.

Dhoni, however, picked Mindscapes over his pal, despite being burned by Gameplan Sports, where he ended up suing promoter Jeet Banerjee for holding back payments. “I asked Dhoni why he didn’t pick me, and he said I needed more experience in this field. I didn’t understand him then, but I realize the value of his decision now,” Pandey says, adding, “He’s emotional, but doesn’t let it cloud his judgment.”

Ruling the sponsors’ game

Pandey doesn’t have a fancy management degree, nor an ability to keep his guard up for a long time, two requirements that are said to be a must in this field. Coming from Benaras, he’s rustic, to the point of being candid of Dhoni’s finances. “He used to get Rs 1.75 crore per deal earlier, then with Mindscapes he got Rs 2.75 to Rs 3.5 crore. Now he’s earning over 5.5,” Pandey reveals without much coaxing.

But there’s genuineness in his ways and more importantly, he has delivered. Even before the official signing, he was working behind the scenes and got Mahi four major deals, each worth Rs 6 crore. Though he wasn’t Dhoni’s agent, the skipper exercised veto powers so that all deals would go through Pandey. “If I had a contact in some company, Mindscapes would back off and let me get the deal.”

One of the companies that broke the bank for him was the Amarpali Group which went from being a Rs 3,400-crore start-up to a fledgling Rs 7,000-crore firm in just nine months of being associated with Dhoni. “Pandeyji is point-blank and that’s what we love about him. He quotes a price and justifies it,” says Shiv Priya, Amarpali Group’s executive director adding, “He’s Jerry McGuire. He cares a lot about relationships.”

Amidst all this, are cries of “unfair” from management giants, who chased Dhoni for six months and ended up with nothing. They scoff at how relationships can sometimes prevail over better sense. “Old pals indeed… we made presentations to Dhoni on how exactly we were going to handle his endorsements. Can his old pal chart out a route for the next three years?” asks a Percept official.

Another adds that Pandey is only getting 2-3 per cent commission, while most of the agencies usually charge 25 to 30 per cent of what a player makes off field.

Roadmap for Brand Dhoni

Is there enough ammo in Pandey’s cannon to last three years? Shirodkar adds much-needed professionalism to the partnership, but at 25 years, he lacks experience. Sen is the only one with years on his side, but he’s leading a proprietary firm of parent company Mindscapes on his own and is short on resources. “We’ve already done 75 per cent of the Rs 210 crore. You work it yourselves. At Rs 5 crore per deal, even if we get 15 deals, it will be Rs 75 crore per year. I didn’t even have to try hard,” Pandey says.

“We are going to cut down on the number of brands he endorses, and squeeze more money from every deal. This way Dhoni has more time for cricket, and he’s going to make a lot of money.”

But it’s not just the skipper. Pandey already has three houses, all in posh parts of the capital. There’s a new SUV that now jostles for garage space with a two-wheeler. This after being virtually penniless when he had first come to Delhi in 1995.

The basement office, however, will soon be a thing of the past. “We are planning to shift to a better location… more obvious place,” he says, adding, “But our business ethics will remain the same... just like Dhoni, we are shy and down-to-earth people. So don’t expect us to hold a press conference when we move,” Pandey adds with a chuckle.

But it’s still cricket that binds the two, not numbers. Pandey says he has a hard time talking business with Dhoni. “He just wants to talk about the game. Whenever I call him about a deal, he doesn’t let me speak. He says that the money part is my tension. Now, the only way I have to tell him something is via email. He can’t control that discussion,” says Pandey.

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People ask me why he picked a rookie like me. What they don’t see is the whole picture: Dhoni had become extremely frustrated with the professionals in the industry who confused him with hyperbole

— Arun Pandey, MSD’s old friend and now, new manager

Pic Caption:
Arun Pandey (left), president of Rhiti Sports, which manages Dhoni’s endorsements, with his friend and Indian captain.