No Harm To Allow MS Dhoni And Suresh Raina For Playing In Foreign Leagues: Aakash Chopra
Aug 20, 2020 at 7:58 PM
Renowned cricket-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra has expressed that the just-retired Indian cricketer MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina should be allowed to play in the foreign leagues. But as per him, Dhoni would not want to play in the overseas league however Raina would gear up whenever he gets the opportunity.
On 15th August, MS Dhoni announced his retirement through an Instagram post following which Suresh Raina also decided to had his boots from international cricket. The duo would play for Chennai Super Kings in the upcoming Indian Premier League scheduled from 19th September in the UAE.
As per BCCI rules, Indian players contracted or non-contracted are not permitted to play any sort of franchise cricket – T20 league, T10 league or any competition of that format – outside the country.
However, Yuvraj Singh and Manpreet Gony are the only ones to be given NOCs by the BCCI to play Global T20 Canada and T10 league after they retired from Indian cricket – including IPL.
Aakash Chopra believes that there would be no harm if Dhoni and Raina are allowed to play in foreign leagues because they would not play international cricket. But he also gave the reason why BCCI might not allow the two Indian megastars to feature in any other league.
Cricketer turned commentator said that the main reason behind not allowing would be injury fears. He added that the board doesn’t want to take any risk therefore they are paying whopping money.
“I think they should be allowed because if they have retired and if they are not presenting themselves for selection for the Indian team then there should be no harm in letting them go. There are two sides of this story, one is workload management.
“BCCI does not let their contracted players go to play in overseas leagues because they do not want to risk an injury scare and thus they are paying them enough money to stay put,” Aakash Chopra said on his Youtube channel.
BCCI wouldn’t let go of their marquee players: Aakash Chopra
Secondly, Aakash Chopra believes that the Indian players are cash cows for BCCI, franchisees and stakeholders. And if an Indian player goes on to play any other league after IPL, it will mean that he is promoting that league. This is something BCCI does not want.
IPL — the biggest T20 league in the world, might lose its monopoly if Indian players participate in other leagues. Therefore, the Indian boards might not let go of the two marquee players.
However, he strongly believes that MS Dhoni might not be interested to play foreign league but alternatively, Suresh Raina would want to play more than IPL.
“Second side is that the BCCI does not want to let go of its marquee players. Because if Indian marquee players will begin playing in other leagues then there will be no novelty left of the IPL.
“So I think Dhoni and Raina should be allowed to play. Just imagine how much fun it would be to see them playing. I don’t see Dhoni playing in foreign leagues but Suresh Raina is just 33 and he will want to play more cricket,” Aakash Chopra asserted.
Suresh Raina had many times during the lockdown period expressed that BCCI should allow their retired players to play the leagues other than IPL.
So,with age in hand, the middle-order might openly accept the proposal of playing in overseas domestic tournaments.