A video of former Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni smoking a hookah recently went viral, stunning many of his fans. However, as it turns out, Dhoni’s fondness for the waterpipe is not new information.
In 2018, Dhoni’s former Chennai Super Kings teammate George Bailey revealed how the legendary wicketkeeper-batsman likes smoking shisha with youngsters to break down hierarchies. Bailey’s old comments have resurfaced after Dhoni’s recent “smoking” video took the internet by storm.
Dhoni was likely filming a commercial with rapper MC Stan when the video was recorded. It showed the cricketing icon nonchalantly puffing smoke from a hookah pipe. While many fans expressed outrage, others took the video in their stride, given Dhoni’s reputed simple tastes.
As Bailey had shared earlier, Dhoni often bonds with new franchise recruits by setting up hookah smoking sessions in his hotel room during the IPL season. Breaking down seniority barriers through such informal interactions is key to CSK’s familial team environment under Dhoni’s leadership.
“He likes smoking a bit of the sheesha or the hookah. So he quite often would set that up in his room, and it was very much an open-door policy. You would go in and quite often find a lot of younger players there,” Bailey had said about Dhoni’s hookah habits.
The two-time World Cup-winning captain will return to cricket when IPL 2023 begins in March. After dramatically taking CSK to their 5th IPL title last season, Dhoni has confirmed he will play one final swansong year before hanging up his boots.
While Dhoni’s off-field activities and carefree lifestyle make headlines routinely nowadays, fans will hope the 41-year-old legend can inspire CSK to one last IPL crown in his farewell season.
