New Delhi: Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) opening ceremony on March 31 at the grand Narendra Modi stadium, captains of all the franchisee/teams got themselves clicked with the trophy. The photo-op event saw all skippers coming together for a photograph.
However, the one thing that strikes the mind of cricket lovers is the picture of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the ‘evergreen’ player who has been leading the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) since the launch of cricket league in 2008.
He is the only cricketer who remains consistent in the IPL trophy photo-op, starting from 2008 to 2023. In last 16 years of the money-spinning sporting extravaganza, many players hanged up their boots while many retired from all formats of game but Dhoni put his foot down & kept going.
The result is obvious –Dhoni is the only skipper in the IPL ‘captains frame’ from 2008 – 2023. All his contemporaries including the likes of Gautam Gambhir or Adam Gilchrist or Sachin Tendulkar have retired from the game.
At present, there are a total of 10 IPL teams namely Chennai SuperKings (led by MS Dhoni), Delhi Capitals (led by David Warner replacing Rishabh Pant), Gujarat Titians (led by Hardik Pandya), Kolkata Knight Riders (led by Nitish Rana), Lucknow Super Giants (led by KL Rahul), Mumbai Indians (led by Rohit Sharma), Punjab Kings (led by Shikhar Dhawan), Rajasthan Royals (led by Sanju Samson), Royal Challengers Banglore (led by Faf du Plessis) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (led by Aiden Markram).
All these players appear in the photo frame with IPL trophy. Notably, one player who remains consistent like Dhoni but missing from frame is Virat Kohli. Kohli too joined the IPL in 2008 and played for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). He became the RCB skipper in 2013 but chose to gave his captaincy last year.
Notably, Dhoni was the most expensive player in the inaugural season of IPL and was bought by Chennai SuperKings at an exorbitant price of Rs 9.5 crore.