Sanjiv Goenka sacks MS Dhoni as captain of Rising Pune Supergiants in 2017 KL Rahul Sanjiv Goenka as captain of Rising Pune Supergiants in IPL 2024

IPL 2024: These days, Lucknow Super Giants owner Sanjeev Goenka is being taken to task by critics. Sanjeev was seen venting out his anger on KL Rahul following LSG's 10-wicket defeat at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad. But this is not the first time that Sanjeev Goenka has vented his anger on his team captain. This is from the era of 2016 and 2017 when CSK and RR were suspended from IPL due to match fixing. In such a situation, their place was taken by Rising Pune Super Giants (RPS) and Gujarat Lions (GL) franchises.

Sanjeev Goenka removed Dhoni from captaincy

Before IPL 2016, MS Dhoni had made Chennai Super Kings the champion twice. But the 2016 season was very bad for Rising Pune Super Giants. RPS was victorious on only 5 occasions out of 14 matches played in the league stage. The team finished at 7th place in the points table. Due to poor performance in the season, Sanjeev Goenka and other members of the management together removed Dhoni from the captaincy.

Goenka had said in his statement at that time, “MS Dhoni has not left the captaincy, but we have declared Steve Smith as the captain for the next season. To be honest, the last season was not good for us and we have to replace every young player.” Wanted to give a fresh start to the team for the tenth season by handing over the captaincy.

Sanjeev Goenka's brother increased the controversy

The fans were not at all happy with the removal of MS Dhoni from the captaincy. This matter gained momentum when Sanjiv Goenka's brother, Harsh Goenka, made a controversial post on social media platform X. Harsh had written in his post during the RPS vs MI match in the 2017 season that Smith has proved who is the real king of the jungle. Smith is now proving to be a better captain than Dhoni. Harsh also said that he took a good decision by making Smith the captain.

Sakshi Dhoni took sarcasm

Let us tell you that in the low-scoring match that Harsh Goenka was referring to, Smith had scored an important fifty. But in that match, Mumbai had won in a thrilling manner by 1 wicket. A few days after that match, MS Dhoni's wife Sakshi Dhoni shared a picture wearing CSK jersey on social media and wrote that this is the result of karma.

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