Indian cricket legend Ravichandran Ashwin, known for his spin bowling, showed interest in the possibility of keeping MS Dhoni as a player without a high rank in the Indian Premier League (IPL). In a video on his YouTube channel, Ashwin said, “Will Dhoni play as a player without a high rank? That’s a big question mark. It’s true that he hasn’t played international cricket for many years.”
Ashwin added, “He has retired. So, he is an uncapped player . He is not a capped player.The topic of considering retired cricketers as uncapped players came up earlier this month when Sunrisers Hyderabad CEO Kavya Maran spoke out. In an interview with CricBuzz, Kavya expressed her strong disagreement with this idea.
She explained, “If new uncapped players are offered more money during the auction, it’s not right to treat experienced players as uncapped. The auction should determine the worth and skill of a retired player, showing respect for their years of service to the sport.”
In the midst of all this discussion, MS Dhoni has yet to announce whether he will play in the 2025 IPL season. Can a player like Dhoni play as a player without a high rank? That’s a different discussion.”
Between 2008 and 2021, the Indian Premier League had a rule that said if a player had stopped playing international cricket for five years or more, they were seen as an uncapped player. There was a lot of talk about whether Dhoni could be kept as an uncapped player after a recent meeting of the IPL teams to talk about the rules for keeping players in the 2025 IPL auction.
A report from ESPNcricinfo said that when the idea to bring back this old rule was suggested during the meeting, many teams disagreed. The idea to keep a retired player as ‘uncapped’ came from the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The team, which has won the IPL five times, wanted to use this rule to keep MS Dhoni, who stopped playing international cricket in August 2020.
The topic of considering retired cricketers as uncapped players came up earlier this month when Sunrisers Hyderabad CEO Kavya Maran spoke out. In an interview with CricBuzz, Kavya expressed her strong disagreement with this idea.
She explained, “If new uncapped players are offered more money during the auction, it’s not right to treat experienced players as uncapped. The auction should determine the worth and skill of a retired player, showing respect for their years of service to the sport.”
In the midst of all this discussion, MS Dhoni has yet to announce whether he will play in the 2025 IPL season.
