Amid the frenzy of the Indian Premier League (IPL) retentions, Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) MS Dhoni spent an evening celebrating Diwali. Cricket collided with festivities on Thursday, October 31, and MS Dhoni was at the centre of the retention saga. However, the former India and CSK captain was captured celebrating Diwali, and attending a religious ceremony, surrounded by family, relatives and friends. Meanwhile, he was also announced as one of CSK’s five retentions ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction, being retained as the ‘uncapped’ player for Rs 4 crore.
Watch: MS Dhoni celebrates Diwali on IPL retentions day
MS DHONI CELEBRATING DIWALI
– Video of the day….!!!! pic.twitter.com/C2zH7PbhK3
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) November 1, 2024
Ahead of IPL 2025, players who have not played an international match or been centrally contracted to the BCCI for five or more years were allowed to be retained as ‘uncapped’ players. This worked in CSK’s favour, who were able to retain 43-year-old Dhoni at the twilight of his career without paying a hefty sum.
Dhoni put to bed all rumours surrounding his retirement when he revealed before the auction that he intended to enjoy the “last few years” of his career, hinting that he still had cricket left in him.
Chennai Super Kings showed immense faith in Ruturaj Gaikwad, who took over captaincy from Dhoni. Gaikwad was retained for Rs 18 crore.
The same retention fee was paid to keep Ravindra Jadeja at the franchise, with CSK choosing to retain their long-time servant.
Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana and Indian middle-order powerhitter Shivam Dube were also retained by CSK.
As a result, CSK retained four players as capped, and one as uncapped, leaving them with one Right to Match (RTM) card to use at the auction. The likes of Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Maheesh Theekshana, Tushar Deshpande and Sameer Rizvi are some of the players who may be considered by CSK for an RTM.
The IPL auction is set to take place in the last week of November, as per reports.
