The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials have confirmed that there is no way MS Dhoni has make a trip to South Africa as Chennai Super Kings’ owned Johannesburg franchise’s mentor.
There has been rumour doing the round on web and social media that Chennai Super Kings (CSK) want their star man and captain MS Dhoni to join their new venture in South Africa as the Johannesburg franchise’s team mentor.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) is introducing a T20 cricket league of their own in the year 2023 that is likely to be played between January and February. A total of 6 teams will be taking part in the competition, all of whom are owned IPL teams.
The Johannesburg franchise is owned by the 4 times Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK). While there has been no official word on the name of the team, it is being said that they have signed Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali and Maheesh Theekshana, all of whom played or still playing for the Chennai Super Kings in IPL.
In another development, the team will have the same management as their CSK team with Stephen Fleming to be the Head Coach. Meanwhile, according to reports, the franchise wanted MS Dhoni also to join the staff and applied for NOC from the BCCI.
However, the rule of BCCI clearly states that no Indian cricketer is allowed to feature in any other T20 leagues in any capacity. A player must retire first before venturing into other leagues.
Today, a official source from the BCCI confirmed to The Indian Express that MS Dhoni cannot join Johannesburg as team mentor. The source told Indian Express, “No Indian player including domestic players can take part in any other league until he is retired from all forms of the game.”
He further added that if Dhoni wants to be a part of the Johannesburg team, he will have to retire from IPL and cut all ties with BCCI.