Chennai Super Kings CEO Kasi Viswanathan said that there are talks about who could be the next captain after MS Dhoni in the franchise, but also revealed owner N Srinivasan’s message regarding this topic. Chennai Super Kings will be led by MS Dhoni in IPL 2024, starting March 22, but they will be looking to identify a future captaincy prospect as well.

However, MS Dhoni arrived in Chennai in the first week of March and he has been attending CSK’s training sessions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, which will host the IPL 2024 season opener between CSK and Royal Challengers Bangalore next Friday as well. While CSK will be focused on defending their title in IPL 2024, all eyes will also be on MS Dhoni’s future plans too.

“See, there have been internal talks. But, Mr. Srinivasan has made it very clear. Let’s not talk about captain and vice-captain appointments. Let’s leave it to the coach and the captain to decide. Let them decide and convey the information to me, and then I will convey it to you all. He has said that ‘the captain and the coach will decide and give us a directive, till then let’s all keep quiet’,” CSK CEO Viswanathan told S Badrinath in the latter’s YouTube show.

It is also noteworthy that, CSK had given the captaincy role to Ravindra Jadeja at the start of the IPL 2022 season. However, after a series of poor results, Jadeja stepped down and Dhoni returned to the helms. However, Dhoni led CSK throughout the 2023 season where they defeated Gujarat Titans in the final in Ahmedabad to become the joint most successful franchise in the tournament history with five IPL titles as well.

Meanwhile, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan said, “We have always focused on qualifying for the knockouts. That’s our first aim. After that, it depends on the performance on that day. We are following that even now. Before every season, MS Dhoni tells us ‘first let us concentrate on league games. We will look to qualify for the knockouts’. Yes, the pressure is there. But over the years, because of our consistency, most of the players are used to this pressure.”