The Board of Control for Cricket in India have announced new retention rules ahead of Indian Premier League 2025 season. The cricket board again reinstated the uncapped player rule which means if any Indian cricketer hasn’t played international cricket in the past five years will be considered as uncapped.
According to this rule, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) now have the opportunity to retain their former skipper MS Dhoni for just 12 crore INR across three seasons.
However, CSK management is not sure whether they will use this for Dhoni. CSK CEO Vishwanthan said that it was still ‘too early’ for the franchise to finalise plans with MS Dhoni in the picture, stating that they still hadn’t established contact with him.
“We are not sure at this stage. We might not even use it for MS Dhoni. It’s still too early to comment on this because we haven’t had discussions with him,” stated Kasi Viswanathan to TOI.
“Dhoni was in the US and we haven’t had discussions yet. Now I am travelling this week, so there is a possibility of some discussions in the coming week. So there could be some clarity then,” Kasi reinstated.
“We are hopeful of him playing but it’s a call Dhoni will himself make.”
MS Dhoni is one of the most successful captains in the history of the IPL. CSK won the five IPL titles under his captaincy. However, he steps down from captaincy ahead of the last season of the tournament. CSK appointed Ruturaj Gaikwad as his successor for the last edition of the tournament. IPL 2023 champions failed to perform under Gaikwad's captaincy as they were unable to qualify for the semifinal of the marquee event.
MS Dhoni's IPL career
MS Dhoni is featuring in IPL since 2008, the former CSK skipper played 264 matches in the cash-rich league where he scored 5243 runs with a highest score of 94 not out.