CSK chief Kasi Viswanathan hopes MS Dhoni will play IPL 2025 for Chennai Super Kings

“I don’t know,” Chennai Super Kings (CSK) chief Kasi Viswanathan said in response to a question on CSK’s YouTube channel. “A question that can only be answered by MS. The question is for us, we have always respected the decisions made by MS, we left them to him.

“As you know, he has been taking decisions and announcing at the right time. We expect that we will get a decision when he decides. But we have a lot of hope that he will be there for CSK. Next year that is the vision and expectations of the fans and myself.”

Over the past few years, Dhoni has been asked this question directly and repeatedly by broadcasters. But his quiet handover of the CSK captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the IPL meant Dhoni, now 42, went through the tournament without interacting with the media.

“It won’t be his cup of tea because he doesn’t like to be part of it [in coaching] nine and ten months a year”

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“I jokingly asked Stephen, ‘have you applied to coach the Indians? Stephen just laughed and said: ‘Do you want me?’,” said Viswanathan. “I know it won’t be his cup of tea because he doesn’t like to be part of it [in coaching] nine-ten months a year. That’s my feeling. I have not discussed anything else about him.”

When asked about CSK’s plans to retain the big squad expected ahead of IPL 2025, Viswanathan said the matter will be discussed only after clarification from the BCCI side to the franchises.

“It is still very early because we have not yet heard from the BCCI about the storage of goods that will be part of the next round of auctions,” he said. “So we expect that the BCCI will discuss with all the franchise owners before they take a decision about their retention.”

Five-time IPL champions CSK finished fifth this season, missing out on the playoffs for only the third time, in 2020 and 2022 on previous occasions. All these times, they bounced back to finish as champions the following season.