In IPL 2016 and 2017, Rising Pune Supergiants (RPG) featured, along with Gujarat Lions, as replacements for Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, who were banned for two seasons because of the involvement of their owners in illegal betting activity.
Many players from the banned franchises ended up playing for the new teams. Among them M.S. Dhoni, erstwhile captain of Chennai, and Steven Smith, who had captained the Royals.
RPG appointed Dhoni as captain. However, having made a bright start in 2016, they faded away, and eventually finished seventh in the group stage of the competition.
Ahead of IPL 2017, Pune took two decisions. First, they dropped the “s” at the end of their name of their franchise to become Rising Pune Supergiant. And they sacked Dhoni and appointed Smith as captain.
The protests subsided after Pune beat Mumbai Indians in the first match of that year’s tournament by seven wickets. Smith played key role with an unbeaten 84 off 54 balls, whilst Dhoni scored 12 not out.
At this point, Harsh Goenka, brother of Pune owner and chair Sanjiv, made an unfortunate intervention. He tweeted that Smith had proved who was the King of the Jungle, and that he had totally overshadowed Dhoni. He also said that it had been a great decision to make Smith captain.
The backlash from the fans of Dhoni, Pune and Chennai was immediate and fierce. Within a few hours, Goenka was forced to delete his post. He apologised to Dhoni and made it up to him later in the series, when he scored an undefeated 61 off 34 balls to help Pune beat Sunrisers Hyderabad. He hit Siddarth Kaul for four off the last ball to seal the victory.
This time Goenka described the innings by Dhoni as masterful, adding that it was great to see him back in form. He also said that there was no better finisher in the game.