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'Thalaivan is thalaivan': CSK CEO's big statement on whether MS Dhoni will feature in IPL 2024
MS Dhoni had said that he will work on his fitness and return as CSK captain in IPL 2024.
MS Dhoni was among the players that Chennai Super Kings (CSK) retained going into the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). While it had looked like he might hang up his boots after the end of the 2023 season, Dhoni had said that he will work on his fitness and return in 2024 as a way of thanking supporters around the country who cheered him on.
Fans wearing the CSK yellow with Dhoni's name on the back had become a bit of a feature of the 2023 season of the IPL even when CSK were playing away from home. It remains to be seen how fit the CSK captain is but the franchise's CEO Kasi Viswanathan is confident of Dhoni playing for them in IPL 2024.
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"If our leader has given a word, he has never gone back. He already told what he was planning to do in that interview. I am sure that knowing MS, he will always do what he has committed to do. He is quite fit. Thalaivan is thalaivan (our leader is our leader)," Kasi Viswanathan said in a video shared by CSK.
Dhoni had been managing a knee injury for much of the 2023 season. He had heavy strapping on the knee and kept wickets for CSK throughout the season despite that. The former India captain then underwent a successful left knee surgery at Mumbai's Kokilaben Hospital on June 1, 2023. He has since been training in Ranchi a number of times since the end of the 2023 season.
Dhoni is the only active player among those who had been captains of teams in the inaugural edition of the IPL in 2008. Considered one of the most succesfull Indian captains of all time, Dhoni led CSK to a record-equalling fifth title last season. He had ended his international career on August 15, 2020 and remains the only international captain to have won the ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup and the Champions trophy. He was also India's captain when they rose to the top of the Test rankings for the first time in 2009.
