MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina announced retirement from international cricket on Aug 15.
The duo is known to be close friends and Raina decided to follow Dhoni in retirement though they will be seen in CSK colors in the upcoming IPL 2020, as the CSK players left for UAE where they will set up base in Dubai to complete their six-day quarantine period and begin prepping for the tournament which begins on September 19.
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This has led to former India opener Aakash Chopra opining on whether Dhoni and Raina should be allowed to feature in foreign T20 leagues. BCCI only allows players who have retired from both international cricket and IPL, to feature in foreign leagues, like Yuvraj Singh did to play in Canada T20 tournament.
Chopra said that BCCI should let Dhoni and Raina participate in foreign leagues if they are ‘not presenting themselves for selection for the Indian team.’
“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,” Aakash said on his YouTube channel.
“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. The 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,” Chopra added.
“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,” he added.