MS Dhoni's academy to go 'online' from on July 2, plans to revive Dubai branch too: Report

Former Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni got his first taste of coaching when he started the MS Dhoni Academy in 2017. The MS Dhoni Academy has over 5,000 trainees in 25 centres across the country. And now the MS Dhoni Academy has also made its way into online coaching as they are set to start virtual coaching for all groups of players, from beginners in the 6-8 years age group to advanced senior players.

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MS Dhoni Academy: Former India captain set to foray into online coaching

The MS Dhoni Academy, which is sponsored by Aarka Sports Private Limited, the sports management company that manages the MS Dhoni net worth, will start its online coaching from July 2. While speaking to Mirror, an Aarka investor said that the response has been overwhelming from all parts of India and they are soon planning to global. He added that they had already started with coaching for coaches and over 200 coaches have benefitted already. From July 2, they are starting with coaching for players.

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The Aarka investor further said that their assistance will supplement what they will do on the field. He added that MS Dhoni is the overall head and a panel of coaches will impart lessons. The MS Dhoni academy has taken a major step by appointing former South African batsman Daryl Cullinan as the director of coaching. The MS Dhoni academy notification said that Daryl Cullinan, who has an experience of playing 70 Tests and 138 ODIs, also has extensive coaching experience across the globe. Other members of the coaching staff include Satrajit Lahiri, Mandar Dalvi, Prasanth Chandran, Chinmoy Roy, Dr Ratnesh Singh and Dr. Kevin Agrawal.

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As far as beginners are concerned, the curriculum includes fun activities, developing fundamental movements, fundamental cricketing skills like hitting the ball, catching, throwing etc. Meanwhile, MS Dhoni also intends to revive his academy in Dubai, which ran into lease issues. Currently, it is closed because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic across the globe and other business issues. A friend of MS Dhoni confirmed that they are soon going to revive the Dubai branch as well.

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MS Dhoni has been on a sabbatical since the end of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in England where India were knocked out by New Zealand in the semi-final. MS Dhoni was supposed to make a comeback in the IPL 2020 where he was set to lead Chennai Super Kings (CSK) but the tournament was postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic. The cash-rich league was considered as a crucial competition to bring MS Dhoni back into the scheme of things. 

MS Dhoni's performance in the IPL 2020 would also have decided if he made it to the Indian team for the T20 World Cup that is supposed to be played in Australia later this year. There is no clear picture regarding the 38-year-old's future with the Indian team. It will be interesting to see how Dhoni's India career pans out if the IPL 2020 is called off.

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