It's Just Mind-Boggling How People In Chennai Absolutely Worship MS Dhoni, Says Sam Billings

Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) player Sam Billings has had the opportunity of playing with MS Dhoni in the IPL 2018 and was gobsmacked to see how people in Chennai worshipped the former India captain.

Billings was part of the 2018 IPL winning Chennai Super Kings (CSK) team and even got to play a few matches for the team as well in Chennai itself. Actually, he represented CSK for two seasons in 2018-19 before moving to the Delhi Capitals in 2021. He played 11 matches for the Chennai-based franchise, scoring 108 runs, including one fifty.

It’s Just Mind-Boggling How People In Chennai Absolutely Worship MS Dhoni: Sam Billings

Sam Billings found it ‘mind-boggling’ how MS Dhoni is worshipped by his fans in India, especially in Chennai, given that he has been playing for the Chennai Super Kings since IPL 2008 and has won three IPL titles for the team in 2010, 2011, and 2018.

“I had the huge honor of playing with MS Dhoni as my captain at Chennai and seeing his life and seeing how he has to live day by day in terms of being cooped up in an hotel and you literally cannot leave unless its to go to training or a match, it’s amazing. It’s just mind-boggling how people absolutely worship him,” Billings said on the Headstrong podcast.

Furthermore, Billings said that cricket in India is much more than just a sport, it’s a culture for the people of the country and it is their everything.

“If Harry Kane walked down the street in India people wouldn’t have a clue who he is. But Jos Buttler goes down there and he gets absolutely mobbed. So it’s just putting in the context that cricket in India is so much more than being a sport, it’s a culture, it’s everything for the people. The pandemonium that goes with it, whether it’s the IPL [or anything] and that is actually to a different level,” Billings concluded.

Sam Billings will hope to make his long-awaited England Test debut when they take on New Zealand in the first Test at the Lord’s from June 2.

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