India’s ODI and T20 skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on Wednesday unveiled as the face and brand ambassador of the Craig McDermott International Cricket Academy (CMICA), a leading state of the art private cricket and educational sports academy in Australia. It proposes to offer a four-year bachelor’s degree in sports science and management with special emphasis on cricket.
Chairman & MD, Rhiti Sports Management (L) Craig McDermott, former Australian Cricketer and CEO Secured Venture Capital (extreme R) and Global Brand Ambassador MS Dhoni at the launch and press conference
Dhoni, addressing a press conference in the capital, said that he was excited to be part of this initiative as it will give him the opportunity to meet and mentor young aspiring cricketers in, both, India and Australia.
“It is the perfect platform for me to give something back to the game,” the 2011 World Cup winning skipper said. “More importantly, the academy will help sports-minded kids strike the right balance between education and sport. So far, intelligent youngsters who were also good in sport had to choose and settle only for one,” he added.
Arun Pandey, chairman of Rhiti Sports, pointed out that they were planning to start a Dhoni Sports Foundation that will help young talent to get access to better facilities in sport as well as to better education. “We are looking forward to creating an ecosystem that will help the young talent find a platform to enhance their skills with expert guidance,” he said.
The dream tie-up between CMICA and Rhiti Sports, with Dhoni as the mentor, is the result of the India captain becoming the global face of Secured Venture Capital, an Australian company headed by Mcdermott himself. Interestingly, Dhoni creates another landmark with this, becoming the first cricketer in the world to be associated with a venture capital firm.
“I wasn’t very clear about the concept of venture capitalists initially,” revealed Dhoni. “I thought they just invest in business startups or new ideas and that’s about it. But now, after speaking to Craig at length I have understood that there is a lot of hard work that goes behind what they do. I am really fascinated,” he added.
“I got to know about the risks involved in these kinds of ventures. You may do due diligence and extensive research but that does not mean you won’t fail. This is what I liked most about it because in life also we take risks without knowing the outcome. It is this challenge that got me interested and helped me decide to become part of this great new initiative,” Dhoni explained.
The tearaway pacer from Australia, McDermott said that it was only recently that they decided to tap the Indian subcontinent.
“We needed a face to help us create awareness for our brand in this part of the world and Dhoni is the apt choice,” he said. “MS has a huge fan following and he believes in our vision. That’s what convinced us to associate with him,” he added.
McDermott pointed out that CMICA will be more than a regular institute offering sports and education at the same time. “It will be of great benefit to Indian students. They will not only get to train in the Dhoni Foundation here in India but also travel to Australia to study at the CMICA,” he said.