Captain Cool retires, but Brand Dhoni still a force to reckon with

His knack of reinventing himself will hold him in good stead, image consultants say

It is, perhaps, testament to his sterling, teflon-like popularity that between January and November last year, Mahendra Singh Dhoni endorsed more brands than Virat Kohli. According to a report by AdEx India and Tam Media Research, which was released in January, Dhoni was the face of 44 brands during the period, as opposed to Kohli’s 43. This may seem somewhat normal, but it’s not: a washed-up, semi-retired Dhoni should never have, ideally at least, been able to challenge the commercial might of prime Kohli, Indian cricket’s perennial poster boy.
 

Like all things Dhoni, there was a strategy behind this. The