{"id":480533,"date":"2026-03-17T14:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/480533\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T14:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:58:12","slug":"ms-dhoni-has-a-sheesha-man-khaleel-whose-sole-job-is-to-look-after-it-former-csk-teammate-spills-the-beans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/480533\/","title":{"rendered":"MS Dhoni has a ‘sheesha man’, Khaleel, whose sole job is to look after it: Former CSK teammate spills the beans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since a video of MS Dhoni<\/a> enjoying a sheesha surfaced after IPL<\/a> 2024, fans have been left wondering: Was it a one-off or does he indulge occasionally? As it turns out, it\u2019s the latter. Sam Billings<\/a>, the England batter and former Chennai Super Kings<\/a> player, has revealed that Dhoni travels with a sheesha, which is usually set up in his hotel room. In fact, the five-time IPL-winning captain even has someone specifically tasked with looking after it.<\/p>\n

\"MSMS Dhoni has a dedicated person to look after his sheesha (AFP)<\/p>\n

Billings made the revelation on the Stick to Cricket podcast, alongside England greats Alastair Cook<\/a>, Michael Vaughan<\/a> and Phil Tufnell. Asked to name his favourite figure in franchise cricket, Billings wasted no time in picking his former CSK captain. But while praising Dhoni\u2019s greatness, he also let slip the quirky detail about the sheesha.<\/p>\n

Also Read: MS Dhoni hookah controversy \u2013 A puff of smoke doesn’t define MSD’s legacy. What Dhoni does in Dhoni time is his business<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHas to be Dhoni. I think just in terms of his captaincy, his aura, it\u2019s fantastic. He\u2019s incredibly calm and genuinely cool. There aren\u2019t many cool people. You don\u2019t meet many cool people these days. But he is. Wow, what a lovely guy, considering how much stardom he has. He\u2019s a superstar. Obviously, a Manchester United fan, like myself. We have watched quite a few games together. Because he can\u2019t leave the hotel or go downstairs to the bar,\u201d said Billings.<\/p>\n

Also Read: After Dhoni’s internet-smashing ‘smoking’ video, George Bailey’s quirky 6-year-old ‘MSD likes hookah’ comment resurfaces<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe leaves his hotel room open, and he has this little sheesha man, whose sole job is to look after the sheesha. Khaleel.\u201d<\/p>\n

What about Virat Kohli?<\/p>\n

Billings then turned to Virat Kohli<\/a>, recalling the former India captain\u2019s fiery send-offs. While he didn\u2019t share any IPL anecdotes, Billings looked back at an ODI between India and England in 2017, where Kohli made his feelings towards the England opener abundantly clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayed against him. He gave me a couple of send-offs. The passion\u2026 yeah, I got bowled out in Kanpur by Yuzvendra Chahal. Yorked myself, round the wicket. Virat, I remember, was at mid-wicket. He took a massive turn just to scream in my face. I was like, \u2018Why are you wasting your time with me?\u2019 All the great players have something special, and if you can\u2019t quite put a finger on one aspect in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n

CSK got Billings on board ahead of the IPL 2018 season for \u20b91 crore and was retained in 2019. In 10 games, he scored 108 runs, emerging champion when CSK beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever since a video of MS Dhoni enjoying a sheesha surfaced after IPL 2024, fans have been left…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[170835,1721,28019,170832,170833,12765,170834,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-480533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-billings-dhoni","tag-cricket","tag-csk","tag-dh","tag-dhoni-sheesha","tag-ms-dhoni","tag-sam-billings","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}