IPL 2022: “Nobody can doubt his skills as a captain” – CSK CEO on MS Dhoni’s retention

Defending Champions Chennai Super Kings announced their retention list on Tuesday.  As expected, the CSK franchise retained their four-time winner, MS Dhoni. Barring Dhoni, the CSK franchise retained Ravindra Jadeja, English all-rounder Moeen Ali and Orange Cap winner Ruturaj Gaikwad. Dhoni will also continue to captain the team despite the end of his career. 

However, Dhoni retention did not come free of cost. He had to make sacrifices and he had to cut down on his salary to enable CSK to retain the Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali, and Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Many critics raised doubts that Dhoni is nearing the end of his career and it was not suitable for the franchise to retain or let him captain the team. However, the owner of the franchise fully backed MS dhoni and reposed his full faith in his ability. He believed that Dhoni might be at the end of his career but he still has the ability to take the team to victory.

However, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan backs Dhoni to contribute and believes he is the mainstay of the franchise. In a video posted by Chennai Super Kings on social media, “Thala has been the mainstay of CSK. He has been a captain who has delivered for us. He gets the best out of the team every time he plays. As far as we are concerned, Thala plays a major role because he controls the team, and the team is benefitted from his experience. Nobody can doubt his skills as a captain.”

Chennai Super kings released some of their star players in the retention list Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Suresh Raina, and Sam Curran. They will now be heading back to the Mega Auction in January. We will have to see who will be bidding for them or will Dhoni be able to buy them back. 

Kasi Viswanathan added that the team will try their best to buy back the South African veteran in the IPL 2022 mega auction. He said, “We look forward to getting them back. For example, Faf has been a team man who has taken us to the finals of two important seasons. It will be our endeavor to go and try for him. But it’s not in our hands. We wish them all the very best wherever they are. We look forward to having a very good 2022.”