Dhoni lands in a legal soap!

KSDL have claimed that Mahendra
Singh Dhoni failed to give adequate clip to the company to back its brand (TOI
Photo)

BANGALORE: Team
India One-day cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni happens himself in a soap
opera. He may be battling difficult to take his squad to the finals of Tri-series Down
Under. But back here, the state-owned Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Ltd (KSDL)
is piquant him in a legal
tangle. KSDL have issued a legal
notice to Dhoni and Kolkata-based Gameplan Sports Private Ltd (Dhoni's endorsing
company) claiming Rs 40 hundred thousand as damages. It have also terminated Dhoni's
contract. Reason: This busy wicketkeeper-batsman failed to give adequate clip to
the company to back its trade name of Mysore Sandal
soaps. In order to give greater
brand visibleness and focusing on immature consumers, KSDL roped in Dhoni as brand
ambassador to back its hot-selling Mysore Sandal soap in January 2006 for a
term of two years. The trade was struck between KSDL and Gameplan Sports for Rs
84.85 lakh. However, only Rs 64.42 hundred thousand was paid during the agreement, with a
promise to pay the balance after completion of days of the month with the
company. According to the
agreement, Dhoni was to give the company a clip of 10 old age for two years (five
days a year). But he failed to ran into these statuses and was available lone for
three days. During his availability, a 60-second commercial advertizement was
produced. 'We have got sought for an arbitration. And the athletics company is yet to
reply,'' KSDL managing manager Type B Hydrogen Anil Kumar told
TOI. Though the contract was to
end in January 2008, KSDL have terminated the trade in December 2007. Besides
Dhoni, Gameplan have handled blurbs for cricketing stars like Piyush
Chawla, Robin Uthappa, Munaf Patel and Rohit Sharma from India; Ricky Ponting
and Adam Gilchrist from Australia; and Kumara Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardane
from Sri Lanka. When contacted,
Yadujit Datta, Gameplan representative, said the company was yet to answer to
KSDL's arbitration. He declined to notice additional as the issue involved legal
aspects. anil.kumar5@timesgroup.com