The Jharkhand government ad featuring Dhoni as the brand ambassador for the forest and environment department

Ranchi, Oct. 10: Modesty, thy name is Jharkhand.

The small state has chosen to be content with a single here and stray run there in spite of having a heavy-hitter son like Mahendra Singh Dhoni in its team.

Throughout this week, Dhoni will appear in government posters to spread the good word about the need to preserve Mother Nature’s bounty, which is ample in Jharkhand.

A noble cause — and also a case of dropping a sitter.

In a country where marketers will give their right arm and more to have Dhoni as a brand ambassador, Jharkhand has ring-fenced him in a limited territory instead of using his selling prowess to promote the whole state as its brand ambassador.

This, despite the skipper, who is said to have charged at least Rs 20 crore recently to endorse one commercial product, offering his services for free.

How Jharkhand has missed the ball is evident from the campaign that whispers Dhoni is the brand ambassador of the forest and environment department of the Jharkhand government.

Advertisements (visual on right) spreading the “live-and-let-live” message have been converted into a spot-Dhoni contest, making his picture as inconspicuous as possible.

Pride of place is given to chief minister Arjun Munda, two deputy chief ministers and Shibu Soren, the co-ordination committee chief. Below the VIP gallery, Dhoni the brand ambassador is featured, although his name is in bigger letters than that of the others.

All of which means that Dhoni will be batting not for the entire Jharkhand, but for a handful of tigers left in Palamau and the state’s plentiful forests.

For a pre-teen state that has seen eight governments, punctuated by bouts of President’s rule, in 11 years, a brand rescuer as charismatic as Dhoni is just what the doctor would have ordered. The face of the most famous son of Jharkhand should have been the antidote to the daily dose of doddering governments, industrial decline, Maoist violence and scams.

Apparently, there had been some murmurs of Dhoni being Brand Jharkhand when Madhu Koda, who is now in jail on corruption charges, was chief minister. “Bandhu Tirkey was the sports minister then. He had mooted the plan of roping in Dhoni as the face of Jharkhand. God knows where the file has vanished now,” said Chanchal Bhattacharjee, who once mentored Dhoni.

R.D. Singh, the Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce secretary, said MSD as state brand ambassador would be a value addition. “Talk of this state and you have a lot of negativity. But at the same time, we have someone like Dhoni who symbolises the best of Young India. He’s our pride. Rather than using him in bits and pieces, the government should make him the face of Jharkhand for the world to notice,” he said.

It appears that no collective thought went into tapping Dhoni’s brand power. The wildlife campaign seems to be the outcome of the individual initiative of Sudesh Mahto, the deputy chief minister in charge of forests and sports and who is a long-time friend of the cricketer. “Till now, his presence was just on paper. The next time he is here you will see him actively batting for wildlife,” Mahto said, sticking to his berths.

Dhoni hasn’t yet made a personal appearance for Jharkhand’s flora and fauna — he has been skipping a lot of engagements in Jharkhand lately and limiting public appearances to Deori temple outings — but he has lent his name to the cause for free.

Chief minister Munda, overcome with emotion after Dhoni lifted the World Cup this April, had promised him land to set up a sports academy. But Munda’s words didn’t translate into any actionable blueprint, forcing Dhoni to knock on the doors of neighbouring Bihar where deputy chief minister Sushil Modi seems keen to help out.