Over the phone, N Srinivasan, the former BCCI president and the guiding light of Chennai Super Kings, sounded emotional. It was 2021, and his team had just clinched their fourth IPL title, beating Kolkata Knight Riders in the final. The question was if MS Dhoni would continue after this.
Dhoni had already hung up his international boots. He had won everything that the white-ball game could offer and he was nearing 40. Srinivasan’s reply was a one-liner: “As long as he (Dhoni) wants to play.” Dhoni is not just the captain and a cricketer of CSK, he is family. The bond is seemingly unbreakable.
No wonder then, that three years down the line, Dhoni, now 42 with five IPL trophies in his bag, is still the leader of the franchise and according to an insider, they expect the veteran to continue. “I haven’t spoken to him of late. But we would love to see him continue,” the official told RevSportz. “He will come to Chennai and start training (with the team) in the first week of March.”
But Dhoni is not getting younger, although he remains fit. So, do CSK have a captaincy succession plan? Only last month, the head coach Stephen Fleming was asked about this. His reply was: “We have had succession plans for MS for about 10 years. It is going to be a talking point, but he is as engaged and as enthusiastic as I have seen him for a while. While that passion is there for the team and franchise, we will roll on.”
For the Latest Sports News: Click Here
CSK’s experiment with Ravindra Jadeja as captain in 2022 faltered to the extent that Dhoni had to take charge mid-season to steady the ship. In 2023, the franchise spent Rs 16.25 crore for Ben Stokes with an eye on his leadership credentials besides his all-round ability. Injuries restricted Stokes’s participation to just two games and he was released this term.
The world of franchise cricket is ruthless, something that Rohit Sharma can attest to. Rohit, too, led his Mumbai Indians to five IPL titles, but on the heels of two-and-a-half fallow campaigns — they made it to the playoffs last year — the franchise stripped him of the role. They brought back Hardik Pandya from Gujarat Titans to replace Rohit as captain, ignoring the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav. This is basically how things work in the cut-throat world of the IPL. CSK are an aberration. Dhoni will go on his own terms when his body starts giving signals.
Not only Dhoni, CSK haven’t changed their head coach for more than a decade now. Players like Dwayne Bravo, for example, have been allowed to become a franchise legend and when he called time on his playing career, he was promptly incorporated into the set-up as the bowling coach.
CSK basically are the only ‘cricket franchise’ in the IPL. Their CEO Kasi Viswanathan is a former secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association. India Cements have several clubs in the Chennai league. The CSK hierarchy knows that sport is about taking the rough with the smooth.
Back to the conversation with Srinivasan three years ago, the veteran administrator told this correspondent to keep an eye on a young Ruturaj Gaikwad. Circa 2024, the 26-year-old has not only become an IPL star, he graduated to the Indian team in white-ball cricket.
Also Read: Exclusive: Gopichand on the importance of learning from failures & being realistic