INR 16.25 crore: the most amount of money Chennai Super Kings have ever splashed at an IPL auction, or even spend for a player; even captain MS Dhoni’s highest salary previously, and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja’s current salary is 16 crore.
At the IPL 2023 auction, CSK went in the main agenda at hand: get an all-rounder. There were three- Stokes, Curran, and Cameron Green. And the four-time champions were able to secure the services of England’s Test captain and one of the best all-rounders of all time for this price.
CEO Kasi Viswanathan has revealed that skipper MS Dhoni was “very happy” to have Ben Stokes in his side. Dhoni and Stokes have even played together before in the IPL: in 2017, both paired up for Rising Pune Supergiant to help the franchise reach the final, with Stokes, in his maiden IPL season, becoming the Player of the Tournament. In 2018, they parted ways, Dhoni back at CSK and Stokes was bought by RR.
Ben Stokes could be CSK’s future captain
Now that CSK have attained the faculties of England’s two-time World Cup winner, MS Dhoni is elated with this news. Kasi Viswanathan also said that they were lucky in the sense Stokes came up after Curran (18.5 crore to PBKS) and Green (17.5 crore to MI) had been already sold.
“Very excited to get Stokes and we were lucky also because he came up at the end. We wanted an all-rounder and MS was very happy that we got Stokes,” CSK CEO Viswanathan said after the auction.
CSK endured a torrid season in IPL 2022, finishing 9th out of 10 teams, and a change of captaincy mid-season – from Jadeja back to Dhoni – created plenty of chaos, which was very un-CSK like.
“CSK looks bright and I hope we do well this season. We follow the process always and that will help us do well,” he added.
There is a belief that Stokes will take the captaincy baton from Dhoni, who is all but certain to retire after the IPL 2023. However, Kasi Viswanathan has left it to the main man, Thala Dhoni.
“Captaincy option is there but it is a call MS will take with time,” he added.
