RP Singh denies links with Dhoni's firm

Left-arm pace bowler Rudra Pratap Singh on Monday denied being managed by Rhiti Sports, the firm in which Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, according to a report, has a 15% stake.A Dhoni's reported business interest has led to questions over possible conflict of A interest, with The Economic Times claiming Rhiti Sports manages Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha.

"Don't know what exactly is running in the news but just to clarify I am not with Rhiti Sports," Singh stated on Twitter after the report came out.Singh has played 14 Tests and 58 One-Day Internationals for India. He has taken 40 wickets in the longer format and 69 scalps in the one-dayers. A He has been out of favour for some time and has not played a Test or ODI since 2011.

Rhiti Sports is owned by Arun Pandey, a close friend of Dhoni. In 2010, Dhoni signed up with Rhiti reportedly for Rs. 210 crore, an average of Rs. 70 crore a year, the costliest deal in Indian cricket.A Singh plays for the Royal Challengers Bangalore team in the domestic T20 league and Ojha for the Mumbai Indians. Raina and Jadeja play for the Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings of India Cements in which Indian cricket board chief N Srinivasan is the vice-chairman and managing director.

Srinivasan agreed to "step aside" from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday following all-round pressure over the arrest of his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan in connection with the betting scandal that rocked the domestic T20 league.A Srinivasan, however, did not resign and the BCCI worked out a unique formula that brought back former chief Jagmohan Dalmiya as head of a four-member "interim arrangement" to run the board.

The betting scandal emerged barely days after the police arrested three Rajasthan Royals players - S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan - on charges of spot-fixing in the cash-rich tournament.