August 15 (Saturday) turned out to be one of the saddest days of Indian cricket. Legendary cricketer MS Dhoni announced his international retirement on this day at 7:29 PM. Suresh Raina also followed his footsteps with his decision a couple of minutes later. In the wake of this, former cricketer Aakash Chopra has urged BCCI to let Dhoni and Raina play overseas leagues.
Incidentally, BCCI doesn’t allow its players to play in the foreign leagues. While no boards have such clause of not featuring in IPL or overseas tournaments, BCCI is an exception. The reason behind may be that India play bilateral series all throughout the year or injury reasons.
Aakash Chopra urges BCCI to let Raina and Dhoni play overseas leagues
The cricketers need to take No Objection Certificate from BCCI to participate in foreign leagues. Recently, Yuvraj Singh featured Global T20 Canada and Abu Dhabi T10 League. Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra sees no farm in letting MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina play in overseas leagues.
“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,” Chopra told in his Youtube channel.
Adding further, Aakash Chopra stated that IPL might lose its glamour if BCCI allows their players to play foreign leagues. Now that Dhoni and Raina have retired, they should have the permission to feature in overseas T20 leagues. While he is doubtful about MS Dhoni’s participation, but he believes Suresh Raina, at 33, can still contribute to the game.
“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,” he added.
