Earlier this year, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni captained the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as it lifted its fourth IPL trophy, he went into history books as the oldest captain to achieve the feat.

At the ripe age of 40, not only did Dhoni break Shane Warne’s record set back in 2008 — Warne was 39 when he captained the Rajasthan Royals that year — but Dhoni is set to defend his title when the tournament kicks off again in 2022.

In addition to playing competitive cricket at 40 and months past his international retirement, what has delivered a bold statement of MSD’s greatness, value and iconicity is that the two-time world cup champion and Champions' Trophy winner, as of a fortnight ago, became one of the oldest players in IPL history to be retained by his team.

The CSK will part with Rs 12 crore for retaining MS Dhoni for yet another IPL season, as he becomes the team’s second player to retain after Ravindra Jadeja. The decision was hardly surprising: only a week before retention lists were out, Dhoni said he hoped to play his last IPL match in Chennai, a city that has become his adopted home.

‘Will play last T20 match in Chennai’

“I have always planned my cricket — the last home ODI I played was at my hometown, Ranchi. So, hopefully, my last T20 will be in Chennai,” said Dhoni only to be met with rapturous applause at an event held to celebrate CSK’s title win. Anyone with basic knowledge of how Team Chennai Super Kings operates knows that what Dhoni wants, CSK usually delivers.

The decision has won plaudits from several stakeholders in the CSK, especially the team’s new principal sponsors. After all, when TVS Srichakra inked its partnership with the team to popularise its Eurogrip brand of tyres, the company’s top management had very little inkling over the exact tenure of Captain Cool’s cricketing future.

“There were indicators that he would play for another year at least, although we knew that it certainly wouldn’t be for three more years,” said P Madhavan, Executive Vice President (Sales & Marketing), TVS Srichakra. “However, we knew one thing for certain: tying up with a team that has Dhoni in it would help us land the brand.”

Winner among winners

It wasn’t rocket science, really. An MS Dhoni swansong would mean that the nation’s eyes would be firmly set on the man and the bright yellow jersey — prime real estate for TVS Eurogrip to be firmly embossed right at the front. It is of course, another matter that brand communication, in-stadia branding, and trade engagements made equally great, if not better, business sense for the TVS member company.

The question, however, remains: how exactly does MS Dhoni remain such a bankable brand, age notwithstanding? The answer could well lie in the statistics. Among IPL captains who have led their sides in over 50 games, Dhoni has the greatest win percentage. And brands love winners.

The former Indian captain wins 59.6 percent of his IPL games. In second place is the great Sachin Tendulkar with a win percentage of 58.82 percent. Dhoni has captained 204 games, which makes Sachin’s 51 pale in comparison — another testament to how his win percentage is much, much superior than anybody else’s. For context, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir, all of whom have captained over 100 IPL matches each, have win percentages of 58.13 percent, 48.16 percent and 55.42 percent, respectively.

Sponsors love consistency

Winning aside, another feature that sponsors love is consistency. Dhoni’s 204 CSK games as captain is proof of his longevity and the team’s faith in his leadership over the last decade-and-a-half. “With MS Dhoni leading the way, he is seen as the face of the team, as he nurtures talent around him,” said Myntra’s VP and business head of social commerce, Achint Setia, in an earlier interview with CNBC-TV18. Myntra was one of CSK’s sponsors in the season gone by.

However, over the years, Dhoni has also crafted for himself an incredibly strong personal brand. Men’s apparel brand, Indian Terrain, recently launched an entire line inspired by the captain’s personal style. From laidback t-shirts and casual attire to the iconic camouflage, the skipper’s look made its way to Indian Terrain’s showrooms soon after Diwali.

“Dhoni has always had a cool, easy demeanour and a self-assured style,” said Charath Narasimhan, Managing Director and CEO at Indian Terrain, “Given that we are also a simple yet stylish brand, we saw a connect between ourselves, and decided to bring in what he likes in a cool and fashionable manner.”

The list of similar endorsements is endless: Cars 24, NetMeds, RedBus, Snickers India and Indigo Paints, to name a few — many of them well into Dhoni’s retirement. The next time Dhoni dons the CSK yellow and the Chepauk reverberates with the sound of ‘Dhoni, Dhoni, Dhoni’, there’s plenty to suggest that the man might well be more than just an enigma.

The Brand Dhoni story is simply one where cold, hard winning is ample indication that sponsors pick their favourites with a lot more scrutiny than just iconicity.

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)