For the upcoming IPL season, all franchises have retained their preferred players. Among them, everyone’s attention was on Chennai to see if they would retain Dhoni or not. Chennai Super Kings have indeed retained Dhoni, but for only 4 crore rupees. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one of the most experienced players in the IPL, and he is preparing to play in the 18th season of the tournament.
Dhoni’s return was felicitated by the return of the uncapped player rule which has been re-introduced by the IPL governing council for the upcoming season. The rule which was scrapped in the 2021, states that a capped Indian player will become uncapped if he hasn’t played international cricket in the last five years since the beginning of next season and doesn’t have a BCCI Central Contract.
“A capped Indian player will become uncapped, if the player has in the last five calendar years preceding the year in which the relevant Season is held, not played in the starting XI in International Cricket (Test match, ODI, Twenty20 International) or does not have a Central Contract with BCCI. This will be applicable for Indian Players only,” said IPL in a media release.
Hence, as per the rule, CSK were able to retain MS Dhoni for the price of an uncapped Player ie INR 4 Crore and didn’t take much burden on their auction purse of INR 20 Crore. Dhoni has been playing for the ‘yellow army’ since the inception of the tournament and has led them to join record five IPL titles in the years 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023.
Apart from Dhoni, CSK retained Ruturaj Gaikwad (INR 18 Crore), Matheesha Pathirana (INR 13 Crore), Shivam Dube (INR 12 Crore), and Ravindra Jadeja (INR 18 Crore). After five retentions, CSK have used INR 65 Crore out of their INR 120 Crore Purse value and have INR 55 Crore to build their remaining squad in the mega auction.
