Courtesy: X
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is likely to bring back the old retention rule, which puts the IPL franchises in a position to retain players retired from international cricket for at least five years. Chennai Super Kings, who pushed for the return of the rule, scrapped in 2021, could allow them to retain legendary wicket-keeper MS Dhoni as an uncapped player before the IPL 2025 auction.
For the unversed, MS Dhoni announced his retirement from international cricket on August 15, 2020, a year after making his last appearance for India in the ODI World Cup 2019 semi-final clash against New Zealand at the Old Trafford. In the last five years, MS Dhoni has played professional cricket exclusively for Chennai Super Kings, winning five IPL titles for them during his long-standing leadership tenure.
After giving up the CSK captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad prior to the start of the IPL 2024 season, MS Dhoni played 14 matches as a wicket-keeper batter. He was quite splendid behind the stumps apart from scoring 161 runs at a strike-rate of 220.55 lower down the order.
With some reduction in responsibility for MS Dhoni on the field at Chennai Super Kings this year, the team management suggested the BCCI to bring back the old IPL retention rule, which wasn’t used from 2008 to 2021. It would allow them to retain MS Dhoni as an uncapped player for just ₹4 crore in the upcoming IPL mega auction, which is going to be a stark contrast to his ₹12 crore payday for each of the last three seasons.
Moreover, MS Dhoni spoke about his future in the IPL in a recent event, and said, “There is a lot of time for it. We have to see what decision they take on player retention etc. Right now, the ball is not in our court. So, once the rules and regulations get formalised, I will take a call, but needs to be in the best interest of the team.”
