Chennai Super Kings owner has revealed that the side’s skipper doesn’t want them to be opting for the retention policy ahead of the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League. MS Dhoni doesn’t want CSK to retain their current stars, including him, as that would be a risk losing significant money from their purse before the mega auction.
It is learnt that the existing franchises will be allowed to retain a maximum of four players from the available squad ahead of the upcoming campaign, which will see the expansion to a ten-team event with new sides based in Lucknow and Ahmedabad.
Learn more 👉 IPL retention: rules, date, money, stars up for grabs and more
In retaining four players, a franchise will lose a sum of INR 42 crores even before entering the auction. In this scenario, the sum cost of retention will be divided among Players 1, 2, 3 and 4 with amounts of INR 16, 12, 8 and 6 crores, respectively.
If the existing franchise opt to keep three of their players with them, they will lose INR 33 crores, with Players 1, 2 and 3 receiving INR 15, 11 and 7 crores, respectively. They will lose 24 crores – 14 to Player 1 and 10 to Player 2 – if only two players are retained and INR 14 crores in case only one player is kept intact. The least expensive player of the lot is an uncapped Indian cricketer, who’ll have to be paid only INR 4 crores in case of retention.
Keeping this in mind, Dhoni seems to have communicated to Srinivasan and the CSK team management that they shall refrain from retaining players as that would mean going into the mega auction with not enough money left to garner a squad that takes CSK’s legacy forward.
The 40-year-old captain, who recently led the side to their fourth Premier league title, has made no exception for himself, making it clear that the franchise should not hesitate in letting him go as well if his retention salary is a hurdle to their progress in the next three-year cycle.
“MS Dhoni is a fair person, he wants retention policy to come out as he doesn’t want CSK to lose lots money while retaining him – that is why he gives different reply to everyone,”
Srinivasan told Editorji.
There have been mixed signals regarding Dhoni’s future with CSK since the start of the UAE leg of the IPL 2021. Prior to the toss for their last league game against Punjab Kings, the skipper said fans can expect to see him in yellow next year, but whether that is while playing for CSK depends on the leniency of the retention policy that BCCI sets.
Learn more 👉 “There are a lot of uncertainties”, MS Dhoni unsure of playing for CSK next season
Dhoni also indicated that he might be retiring after the season if he finds the new retention policy and his retention as a thing that holds his team back and will happily join their backroom staff so as to oversee their transition.
“Well you can see me in yellow, but whether I’ll be playing for CSK there are a lot of uncertainties around it for a simple reason that we have two new teams coming up. We don’t know the retention policy.
We don’t know how many foreigners, Indian players we can retain, the money cap that every player will be cutting from the kitty. So there are a lot of uncertainties,”
Dhoni had said at the toss.
He talked on similar lines while speaking to commentator Harsha Bhogle at the post-match presentation ceremony following the win over Kolkata Knight Riders in the final. But then cheekily left all possibilities opened stating: “Still I haven’t left behind.”.
