Скачать или смотреть Sourav Ganguly on MS Dhoni and his batting potential | Cricket | Team India

Could MS Dhoni be retained as an uncapped player by Chennai Super Kings for IPL 2025? It's an avenue the franchise is exploring by suggesting that the IPL bring back an old rule that was in place for more than a decade.

During the meeting between the IPL and the ten franchises in Mumbai on Wednesday, it is understood that CSK wanted the reintroduction of a rule that had existed since the inaugural edition in 2008 until 2021, when it was believed to have been scrapped at the behest of teams. According to this rule, if a player was retired from international cricket for five or more years, they would be classified as an uncapped player. It is understood that apart from CSK, the majority of the other franchises were not in favour of reintroducing the rule.


Dhoni had announced his retirement from international cricket on August 15, 2020. Ahead of the following mega auction, before IPL 2022, Dhoni was the second player after Ravindra Jadeja on CSK's list of retentions, at the cost of INR 12 crore from the franchise's auction purse. An uncapped player retained that year cost the team only INR 4 crore.

If the IPL sets similar costs for uncapped players retained ahead of the 2025 auction, it is believed that CSK are keen to retain Dhoni via that route. Several other franchises, however, were not in favour of giving long-retired internationals uncapped status.

The question of whether Dhoni, 43, will continue to play the IPL is one that has arisen towards the end of the last few seasons. After undergoing knee surgery in 2023, he handed over the CSK captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the 2024 season and played a limited role with the bat - coming in late in the innings as a boundary-hitter. At an event, Dhoni recently said he and CSK would wait for the player retention rules to be finalised before taking a decision on playing the 2025 season.

MS Dhoni has resorted to a wait-and-watch approach before deciding on his IPL future. As the IPL chalks out the auction and retention plans ahead of the 2025 season, Dhoni wants to see what rule changes come into effect, especially with regard to player retention, before he makes a decision on whether to play another season or not.

"There is a lot of time for it," Dhoni, who turned 43 in July, said at an event in Hyderabad. "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."

The BCCI met franchise owners and officials on Wednesday evening in Mumbai, to discuss a host of rules. On the meeting's agenda was the Impact Player rule, how many players are to be retained, and the existence and frequency of the mega auction (one is due before next season) among other points.

Former BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has said that the critics who targeted him for naming Rohit Sharma as captain have now gone silent since the latter led India to their first-ever T20 World Cup win since 2007.

Speaking to Bangla newspaper AajKaal, Ganguly didn’t hold back in taking the attack to the detractors behind his decision to name Sharma as the successor of Virat Kohli, who stepped down from the T20 captaincy after the 2021 World Cup in UAE.

“I was criticised when I handed over the captaincy to Rohit. And now that we’ve won a trophy under his captaincy, no one is abusing me. Everyone has forgotten that I made him the captain,” Ganguly said.