Sunil Gavaskar welcomed MS Dhoni's decision to play for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023.
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Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has opened up on MS Dhoni‘s future on Friday, May 20. However, he welcomed Dhoni’s decision to play for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023, saying that the World Cup-winning former India captain will have an opportunity to thank his fans around the world if the tournament is played at home and away format as well. Notably, MS Dhoni has given a lot of joy to his fans by confirming that he will play for CSK in IPL 2023, quashing all the speculation about his future in the cash-rich Indian Premier League as well.
Dhoni, who will be 41 in July this year, has shared that he felt it will be unfair to Chennai Super Kings fans if he bids goodbye without playing in front of the home fans at the Chepauk as well. He also said that he will look forward to saying thank you to fans across the country, provided the IPL returns to the home and away format in the next season as well. However, the IPL was played in the UAE in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic that too across select venues in the first half of IPL 2021 where teams did not play at their home venues before the tournament was shifted to the UAE in September-October as well.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing. Like he explained, he wants to say thank you to all those who have supported his team and him, no necessarily CSK, he has been captain of India, he has taken India to the heights unseen before,” Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports. “Next year, hopefully, it will be a kind of home and away situation. There are 10 teams, so he will be able to able to say goodbye to every 10 venues. Sometimes, we actually see some franchises want to maybe take another venue as their home ground. Ranchi could be a home ground. These things can happen, which means he gets the opportunity to say thank you to pretty much the whole of India.”
However, MS Dhoni had quit captaincy at the beginning of the IPL 2022 season and handed over the captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja. But, Jadeja stepped down after playing eight games and losing most of them and Dhoni returned to take over the captaincy role again. Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings failed to reach the playoffs, only the second time in the history of the league as well. Moreover, MS Dhoni has said that he is not sure whether next year will be his last year for CSK, adding that 2 years is a long time to commit for anything as of now and stated that he will work hard to return stronger next year as well.
“Well, I think, definitely. It’s a simple reason. It will be unfair to not play in Chennai and say thank you. Mumbai is one place where, as a team and as an individual, I have got a lot of love and affection. But, you know it won’t be nice to the CSK fans. And also, hopefully next year the teams will get an opportunity to travel, so it will be like a thank all the different places where we will be playing games at different venues. Whether it will be my last year or not that’s a big question because you know we can’t really predict about something two years down the line, but definitely I’ll be working hard to come back strong next year,” MS Dhoni said at the toss ahead of CSK’s last game of IPL 2022 against Rajasthan Royals.
