Mahendra Singh Dhoni can now wear the Yellow Jersey and scream ‘Whistle Podu’. The IPL Governing Council has ratified his home-coming stating that all the IPL teams can have retentions up to five players. Much to the chagrin of a few existing teams, the privilege has also been extended to Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, who are coming back into the IPL after serving a ban of two-years.
CSK fans have another reason to celebrate as the team director has confirmed that Dhoni will captain the side in IPL 2018. He will be among the players who CSK will retain as per the new player retention rules decided upon in the IPL Governing Council meeting.
While speaking to Sportskeeda, CSK team director George John, said: “We are very happy about it. But we haven’t applied our mind to it right now but we are extremely happy about it.”
“(On MS Dhoni coming back to CSK as captain) Obvious, yes. It is a very obvious choice but we have not applied our mind beyond that.”
George also confirmed that they can only retain players who played for them in 2015. When asked about whether this was a disadvantage, as they were missing out on a player like Mohit Sharma who was with CSK, he said he was happy with the rules.
“We are happy with this. Thirteen players are there (from the 2015 squad), so we are fine with it.”
Dhoni’s expected return to Chennai was much debated and so much so, the former India captain, who had led CSK to two IPL (six finals), two Champions League titles, had reportedly stated recently that he would either play for the Chennai side or not take part at all.
The main issue settled, now the question is about other Chennai players, particularly Suresh Raina. The CSK official was clear on this. “Dhoni will decide who to retain and who not to,” he said.
