For years, one question has followed MS Dhoni wherever he goes – how long will he continue playing? On Sunday evening at Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) grand ‘Roar 2026’ event at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, that familiar curiosity resurfaced once again. This time, it came from Tamil superstar Sivakarthikeyan, and as expected, Dhoni responded in a way only he can – calm, witty, and instantly memorable.

MS Dhoni’s humour steals the show at CSK’s ‘Roar 2026’ event

As the crowd cheered loudly, Sivakarthikeyan playfully suggested, “You can play till 60 also, Sir,” tapping into the emotions of millions of fans who never want to see Dhoni step away from the game. The remark drew huge applause from the packed stadium, reflecting just how deeply fans still believe in their beloved “Thala.”

Dhoni, however, stayed true to his understated style. With a slight smile, he replied, “It’s very difficult.” But the moment didn’t end there. As the actor continued to insist, praising his fitness and longevity, Dhoni delivered the line that quickly went viral: “It’s on the way down, it’s not on the way up… I can try.”

The crowd erupted in laughter and cheers. It was vintage Dhoni – honest yet humorous, acknowledging reality while still leaving a small window of hope. The exchange wrapped up with Sivakarthikeyan smiling and saying, “We have got the answer,” perfectly capturing the mood of the moment.

Here’s the video:

A CSK fan at heart, Our star SK in the house 🥳#Roar26 #WhistlePodu pic.twitter.com/Sl8aG0xmGH

— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) March 22, 2026

Dhoni’s legacy in franchise cricket

The light-hearted exchange was more than just a viral moment – it was a reflection of Dhoni’s journey and his unique bond with fans. Over the years, he has built a legacy that goes far beyond statistics, becoming the emotional core of Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Since the IPL began in 2008, Dhoni has been synonymous with CSK, leading the franchise through highs, setbacks and comebacks. Even during the two seasons when CSK was suspended, he continued to lead from the front with Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) before returning to Chennai and restoring the team’s dominance.

Under his leadership, CSK has lifted five IPL titles, cementing its place as one of the most successful teams in the league’s history. Although he handed over captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the 2024 season, Dhoni remains the heartbeat of the side – guiding, mentoring, and inspiring both players and fans.

His numbers for CSK are equally impressive. In 272 matches, he has scored 5,314 runs, making him one of the franchise’s all-time greats. Only Suresh Raina sits ahead of him in the run charts. But beyond the numbers, it’s Dhoni’s composure, leadership, and ability to deliver in crucial moments that define his legacy.

Also READ: ‘Before the legacy, there were these two’ – CSK inducts Suresh Raina and Matthew Hayden into inaugural Hall of Fame

The ‘Roar 2026’ event also saw Dhoni celebrating the next generation of stars, as he honoured T20 World Cup 2026 winners Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube, along with U-19 World Cup-winning captain Ayush Mhatre. It was a symbolic passing of the torch – acknowledging the future while still cherishing the present.

As CSK gear up for IPL 2026 under Gaikwad’s leadership, fans know that every appearance from Dhoni now carries special meaning. His witty reply may have downplayed expectations, but it also carried a subtle truth – his journey is closer to its end than its beginning.

Yet, for the yellow army, even that hint of “I can try” is enough to keep the hope alive. Because with Dhoni, it has never just been about how long he plays – it’s about the moments he creates every time he steps onto the field.

Also WATCH: Suresh Raina turns back the clock with a towering six off Noor Ahmad, leaves MS Dhoni amused at CSK Roar ’26

Claims have emerged that Joe Kent leaked Charlie Kirk’s private messages to Candace Owens through an internal chain involving Turning Point USA figures. The texts, sent shortly before Kirk’s death, revealed tensions over donor pressure and political direction. Kent denies leaking them, but the controversy has intensified scrutiny and sparked backlash across conservative and pro-Israel circles.

The scandal of Joe Kent and Candace Owens has intensified after their allegations that they were associated with a leak of personal messages of Charlie Kirk. What started as a mere speculation has now become a wider discussion of trust, intentions and responsibility on the right wing. The purported messages have cast fresh doubts on what Kirk went through during his last days, as well as unveiling internal strains. The chain of custody of the leak is now being posited to be in some way checked by those in the know, and those who have access to the leak are now more on the spot. With the emerging details, the situation is no longer a rumour, but a serious test of credibility, and there may be political and reputational repercussions in all directions.

Leak claims ignite political storm around Joe Kent and Candace Owens

During a recent media appearance, Rabbi Pesach Wolicki laid out a sequence that has since gained traction. According to him, the screenshots originated within a private WhatsApp group before being passed along through multiple hands. The path allegedly ran from Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet to Joe Kent, and ultimately to Candace Owens. Kolvet himself later confirmed the authenticity of the messages, stating he shared them with officials “to leave no stone unturned.”The texts, sent roughly two days before Kirk’s death, paint a complicated picture. They reportedly show him venting frustration over donor pressure and internal disagreements. One message claimed he had lost a major financial backer after refusing to cancel Tucker Carlson. Another line suggested deeper tensions, with Kirk writing that “Jewish donors play into all of the stereotypes,” while also weighing whether to bring Owens into the conversation as a counterbalance.Kent has publicly rejected accusations that he leaked the material, even as the claims gain momentum. He has instead framed the messages as “data points” tied to broader questions surrounding Kirk’s death. Still, the renewed attention comes at a difficult moment, as Kent already faces scrutiny over separate allegations involving classified information.Conservatives and pro Israel people have responded in various ways ranging to concern to overt anger. The last thing people expected was to see the personal issues of Kirk, who was always considered a good ally. Meanwhile, the messages have been abused by Owens and her supporters to advance larger agendas and aggravate an already tense situation.

The Middle East conflict continues to squeeze global energy supplies as the war drags on, sending ripples of concern across markets worldwide. Against this uncertain backdrop, Saudi Arabia, appears long prepared for a worst-case scenario like this. The kingdom has effectively pressed the “contingency plan” button after the Strait of Hormuz was disrupted following US and Israeli strikes on Iran, moving swiftly to keep its oil exports flowing even as tensions continue to climb.At the centre of this preparation is a 1,200-kilometre East-West pipeline, built in the 1980s, running across the Arabian Peninsula from the country’s eastern oil fields to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, Bloomberg reported. The route, originally designed as a backup to Hormuz, has quickly taken a front seat as the crisis intensifies.

Within hours of the escalation, Saudi Arabia began rerouting crude through this inland corridor. Yanbu, a relatively low-profile industrial port compared to the Gulf coast hubs, has now become the main export point, with a growing number of oil tankers assembling offshore to load shipments as more vessels arrive each day.State-owned Saudi Aramco is now operating under pressure to scale up flows through this alternative route. Crude exports from Yanbu have reached a five-day rolling average of 3.66 million barrels, according to Bloomberg ship-tracking data, around half of the kingdom’s pre-conflict export levels.

‘Global economy is better with the line in operation’

The importance of the pipeline lies in its ability to offset the impact of the Hormuz closure. Everyday, roughly 20 million barrels or about one-fifth of global oil consumption, typically pass through the strait. With that route disrupted, producers across the region have faced constraints, but Saudi Arabia has retained an alternative outlet that allows it to continue moving crude to market.“The East-West pipeline is looking like a strategic masterstroke right now,” Jim Krane, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Houston’s Rice University told Bloomberg. “The entire global economy is better off with the line in operation.”The current reliance on the pipeline marks a return to a system conceived during earlier regional conflicts. Initially developed during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the East-West pipeline was intended to reduce dependence on Gulf shipping lanes. Over time, it has been expanded and adapted, eventually reaching a capacity of around 5 million barrels per day in the 1990s, with further enhancements allowing higher throughput in times of crisis.

Saudi Aramco, which operates a highly integrated global logistics network, has had to pivot quickly. The company began contacting customers as soon as hostilities began, requesting that vessels be redirected to Yanbu. Saudi tanker operator Bahri issued similar instructions to shipowners, helping coordinate the sudden shift in export flows. By March 4, Aramco confirmed it had begun ramping up pipeline operations, and within days, international buyers, including a major Indian refiner, had started securing cargoes from Yanbu.The scale of the rerouting has been significant. By March 10, at least 25 supertankers were heading towards the Red Sea port. Shipping sources indicate that Bahri was paying rates exceeding $450,000 per day to secure enough vessels to service Yanbu. Despite the high costs, the number of ships bound for the port has continued to rise, reflecting the urgency to maintain supply chains. At times last week, Yanbu was loading more than 4 million barrels per day.“The mere existence of an alternative route helps calm markets by reassuring buyers that not all the region’s exports are trapped,” says Carole Nakhle, chief executive officer of energy consultancy Crystol Energy Ltd. “That said, it’s not a risk-free alternative. If Yanbu and the East-West system were to come under sustained pressure, that would mark a serious escalation,” Bloomberg cited the expert.That risk has already been highlighted. Iran’s strike on the Samref refinery in Yanbu, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Exxon Mobil Corp, came just days into the escalation. This followed Israeli strikes on Iran’s largest gas production and processing facilities, prompting Tehran to retaliate with attacks on energy infrastructure across the Gulf.The East-West pipeline itself has previously been targeted, including as recently as 2019, and remains exposed in the event of further tit-for-tat strikes. Saudi Arabia’s eastern production facilities have also faced attacks, and the Ras Tanura refinery, the country’s largest, was temporarily shut down. Aramco has at times reduced crude production by as much as 2.5 million barrels per day, resulting in lost revenue despite higher oil prices.

Yanbu at center of outflows

Yanbu itself has now moved to the centre of Saudi Arabia’s export operations. Historically overshadowed by the eastern Gulf coast, from Jubail to Ras Tanura, where Aramco shipped its first crude cargo in 1939, the Red Sea port is now handling the bulk of the kingdom’s export activity. Refineries and petrochemical plants in Yanbu, though less prominent, are currently serving as a critical interface between Saudi production and global buyers.The pipeline feeding Yanbu originates near Abqaiq on the eastern coast, where it connects to major oil fields. From there, it crosses desert terrain and climbs to elevations exceeding 1,000 metres over the Hijaz mountains before reaching the Red Sea. Alongside crude exports, around 2 million barrels transported through the pipeline are directed to domestic refineries along the western coast, which continue producing refined products such as diesel for export.

A lifeline with risks

The idea of an alternative route dates back to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when concerns over Hormuz first intensified. A 1980 report in the Mideast Report described the planned pipeline as a safeguard against the “strategic yet vulnerable Strait of Hormuz, which could eventually come under Iranian guns.” Since then, successive expansions and upgrades have turned it into a core component of Saudi Arabia’s export infrastructure.However, the Red Sea route is not entirely without risk. Vessels travelling to and from Yanbu must still pass through the Bab El-Mandeb Strait, another critical chokepoint linking global shipping lanes between the Mediterranean and Asia. In recent years, this area has seen intermittent attacks from Houthi militants, raising concerns about potential disruptions to maritime traffic.“The Houthis now have a veto on Saudi oil exports via the Bab al-Mandab,” says Rice University’s Jim Krane. “If they decide to back Iran by shutting another critical chokepoint, oil markets will gyrate even more wildly.”The broader implications of Hormuz being blocked are now becoming clear. The war has triggered a global energy shock, with commodity prices rising across sectors. Brent crude has climbed to its highest levels since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, up 55% in the three weeks since the conflict began, closing at $112.19 per barrel on Friday.Over the longer term, the crisis is likely to reshape energy strategies across the Middle East. Countries are increasingly evaluating alternative export routes and infrastructure resilience. Oman has been positioning its port of Duqm as a regional hub, with plans for large-scale storage capacity. The United Arab Emirates operates a 1.5 million-barrel-per-day pipeline to Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman, bypassing Hormuz, though that terminal has itself come under repeated attacks in recent weeks.

The 11th edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), set to begin on March 26, faces uncertainty after a warning was issued by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to foreign players against participation in the tournament. The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of the group has advised overseas players to withdraw from the tournament, citing security concerns.The development comes a day after the league was reduced to a closed-door event at two venues, Karachi and Lahore, amid the ongoing West Asia situation and related security issues.A Pakistan-based X handle ‘Islamabad Post’ shared a statement attributed to the TTP faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which warned foreign players to “prioritize your personal security and withdraw from the tournament immediately.”“Today, the people of Pakistan, specifically those in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are enduring unprecedented hardships due to systemic military oppression and state-led violence. While our streets are marked by the funerals of our loved ones and our mothers mourn the disappearance of their sons, the organized spectacle of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) serves as a cruel mockery of our suffering. Hosting such festive displays while entire regions bleed is an act of ‘rubbing salt into our wounds’ that we categorically reject,” the statement said.It further read, “We wish to convey a clear and urgent message to all participants of the PSL, especially the foreign players: The current internal security and political landscape of the country is volatile and precarious. In a climate where military operations and civil unrest dominate significant portions of the territory, the safety of international athletes cannot be guaranteed. Given these dire circumstances, we strongly advise you to prioritize your personal security and withdraw from the tournament immediately.“The group said it is not opposed to cricket but questioned the timing of the tournament. “While we are not inherently opposed to healthy sporting activities, we refuse to tolerate the state’s hypocrisy. It is unacceptable to promote an image of ‘normalcy’ through cricket matches in one part of the country while state-sponsored atrocities continue unabated in another. We will not allow the blood of the oppressed to be overshadowed by the lights of a stadium, nor will we permit the dignity of our people to be.compromised for the sake of political optics,” the statement read.A Jamaat-ul-Ahrar spokesperson later confirmed the warning in a conversation with The Sunday Guardian. “We want to advise the relevant cricket boards not to send their players to Pakistan. If something happens to them, it will not be our responsibility. We have already warned,” he said.When asked whether this meant preventing matches from taking place, he added, “Yes, we will do our best to ensure that the matches do not happen and the players do not play.”This year’s PSL features several overseas players, including David Warner, Steve Smith, Moeen Ali, Devon Conway and Adam Zampa. Their participation is part of efforts to bring international players back to the league.On Monday, Steve Smith arrived in Pakistan to join Multan Sultans and is set to make his debut in the tournament after a recent Big Bash League campaign.Meanwhile, the league will be played without spectators as Pakistan deals with a fuel crisis. PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi confirmed that all matches will be held behind closed doors and restricted to two venues.The tournament is scheduled to run from March 26 to May 3.

“The West Asia war set unprecedented challenges for India too,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday described the situation in the Middle East as “worrisome,” noting that it is significantly affecting the global economy as well as people’s livelihoods. “The West Asia war set unprecedented challenges for India too. The West Asia conflict zone is an important route for India’s trade with other nations,” he said.Speaking in the Lok Sabha on the ongoing developments in the region, he emphasised that protecting Indian citizens remains the government’s foremost concern during such conflicts. He added that the Centre is alert, responsive and prepared to provide all necessary assistance.PM Modi also spoke of India’s crude oil, LPG, and LNG situation, stressing on steps taken to manage the ongoing crisis and benefits of diversification.

LPG, Crude Oil Supply: PM Modi lists steps taken

“The current situation in West Asia is worrisome. This crisis has been going on for more than three weeks, having a very adverse impact on the global economy and on people’s lives. The entire world is urging all parties to resolve this crisis as quickly as possible,” Modi said. PM Modi pointed out that cargo movement through the Strait of Hormuz has been challenging since the conflict began, but the government is taking steps to ensure that supplies of gas and fuel face minimal disruption. “We all know that India imports 60 per cent of its LPG needs. Due to uncertain supply, the government is prioritising domestic supply. LPG production in the country is also being increased,” he said.

“Due to ethanol blending, we are saving the import of about 4.5 crore barrels of oil every year. Similarly, railway electrification is also bringing great benefits. If such large-scale railway electrification had not happened, an additional 180 crore litres of diesel would have been required every year.We have also expanded the metro network. In 2014, the metro network was less than 250 km, which has now increased to more than 1100 km,” he said.Also Read | LPG crisis: Argentina emerges as key alternative supplier; shipments more than double in just first three months of 2026“We are in constant dialogue with all our global partners to ensure the safety of our maritime corridors. As a result of such efforts, many of our ships stranded in the Strait of Hormuz have recently returned to India… In the last 11 years, our refining capacity has increased significantly. The government is in constant contact with suppliers from different countries. The effort is to ensure that oil and gas supplies continue from wherever possible...further secure India’s future… The Indian government has also established an inter-ministerial group. This group meets daily, and our input is fully integrated. And this group also continuously works on necessary solutions. I am confident that with the combined efforts of the government and industry, we will be able to better cope with the current situation,” he added.Through its diplomatic engagements with Iran India has managed to secure the safe transit of some LPG and crude tankers, and more are expected in the coming days. India has also stepped up LPG procurement from the US and Argentina, as per reports. Russian crude has come to the rescue with several million barrels of oil procured since the start of the US-Iran war to fill the supply gap from the Middle East.PM Modi said India must be ready for prolonged repercussions arising from the US-Israel-Iran conflict. “Because of this war, the difficult global situation may continue for a long time. Therefore, we must remain prepared and stay united. We have faced such challenges before as well by staying united during the coronavirus pandemic. We must remain very careful and alert. Some people will try to spread rumours to take advantage of the situation. We must not allow such people to succeed,” he said.Also Read | More relief coming soon? Two India-flagged LPG ships transit Strait of Hormuz: ReportThe prime minister further noted that the conflict has given rise to a range of unforeseen challenges, spanning economic pressures, humanitarian concerns and issues linked to national security.He pointed out that the countries involved maintain strong trade ties with India and are crucial for meeting a large share of the country’s crude oil and gas needs. He also highlighted the region’s importance due to the presence of nearly one crore Indians living and working there.He stressed that it is important for Parliament to present a unified and collective stance on the crisis to the global community. Modi said that since the onset of the conflict, all Indians in the affected areas have been extended necessary support. “I have spoken with most of the heads of state in West Asia over the phone in two rounds. And they have all assured the safety of Indians,” he said. Highlighting evacuation efforts, PM Modi said nearly 1,000 Indians have already returned home safely, including over 700 medical students, while a total of 3.75 lakh citizens have been brought back since the conflict began. He pointed out that the West Asia region is critical for India, given that around one crore Indians live and work in Gulf countries, and a significant number of Indian seafarers are employed on commercial vessels operating there.