MS Dhoni allegedly duped for crores by Australian sports company Spartan
Indian captain in the limited-over formats, MS Dhoni, has been allegedly duped by Australia-based sports gear company Spartan. PTI reported that the famous brand owes a humongous amount of several crores to the 35-year old cricketer.
Apparently, Dhoni had signed a three-year deal with Spartan covering both bat and sponsorship deals in December 2013. With the financial agreement valued at INR 13 crores, the company had given only four installments to the wicket-keeper batsman including the previous one in March 2016.
If the royalty clause on the stalwart’s bat deal was taken into account as well, then Spartan’s dues go beyond INR 20 crores. As a result, there has been a fall out between the two parties.
Reports suggest that Rhiti Sports, the company which takes care of Dhoni’s endorsement deals, is planning to address the issue as soon as possible. The management firm’s boss Arun Pandey revealed, “Everything is not smooth and hopefully the matter will be resolved soon.”
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However, Pandey refused to elaborate on the future course of action and was not available for further comments. It is understood that Rhiti Sports might go through the legal route against the Kunal Sharma-owned Spartan company.
With offices in multiple cities ranging from Sydney and New Delhi, Spartan also endorses numerous top players such as Michael Clarke, Chris Gayle, Eoin Morgan, Mitchell Johnson, Joe Burns, Gurinder Sandhu and Viv Richards.
Despite being in the final phase of his career, Dhoni remains one of the most popular and marketable sportsmen due to his brand worth exceeding over INR 100 crores. Apart from co-owning franchises like ISL team Chennaiyin FC and HIL’s Ranchi Rays, he is the brand ambassador of more than 15 establishments.