Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has backed MS Dhoni and his decision to play for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023 on Friday, May 20. He has said that Dhoni will have an opportunity to thank all his fans across the country if the tournament is played at home and away format as well. However, Dhoni has confirmed that he will play for CSK in IPL 2023, quashing all the speculation about his future in the IPL as well. Dhoni, however, has said that he felt it will be unfair to CSK fans if he bids goodbye without playing at the Chepauk.
“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,” 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.”
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However, MS Dhoni had quit captaincy prior to the IPL 2022 season and handed over the responsibility to Ravindra Jadeja, who stepped down from the role midway into the season after a poor start to their campaign. Dhoni once again took over the leadership but Chennai were not able to bounce back, failing to make the playoffs for the second time in the history of the league.
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“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.
