(Image source: X.com)
[Saba Sports News] Chennai Super Kings (CSK) CEO Kasi Viswanathan opened up on franchise’s plan for future. While Viswanathan admitted to internal talks being held on who could replace captain MS Dhoni after he winds down his Indian Premier League (IPL) career, he talked about owner N Srinivasan’s directives to leave this decision to ‘Thala’ and head coach Stephen Fleming.
For the unversed, IPL 2024 could be Dhoni’s last season as a player. With mega auction planned for the next year, Dhoni may decide to hang his boots at end of this season itself.
But before that happens, he needs to fulfill the task to find his successor. Although Ravindra Jadeja could have been the one, his unsuccesseful captaincy stint in IPL 2022 dents his chances of leading CSK again. Ruturaj Gaikwad is emerging as the frontrunner to take over the captaincy hat from Dhoni.
Srinivasan, as revealed by Viswanathan, has given full authority to Dhoni and Fleming to decide on the future roadmap.
“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’,” Viswanathan said as quoted on S Badrinath’s YouTube channel.
Viswanathan further shared Dhoni’s thought process, accentuating that he does not look too far ahead and has inculcated this in the team’s ideology of taking one step at a time.
“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,” Viswanathan mentioned.
The defending champions will kick-off the season on March 22 at their home venue against Royal Challengers Bangalore.