Three years after the international retirement of MS Dhoni, the BCCI has reportedly retired his iconic number 7 jersey, and no Indian men’s cricketer will be seen donning number 7 on their back going forward.
This will be only the second time that a particular number jersey has been retired by the BCCI, after retiring Sachin Tendulkar’s number 10 jersey. After Tenddulkar’s retirement, Shardul Thakur once wore the number 10 jersey while playing for India and he got a lot of trolling and brickbats from Tendulkar’s fans. Thakur then changed to number 54.
Since MS Dhoni’s international retirement, no player has so far worn a number 7 jersey in the Indian team, and now that the board has “retired” the number 7, no men’s player will.
It’s an interesting coincidence that this news comes as the ‘Thala for a reason‘ trend is viral on social media.
BCCI retires number 7 jersey as a tribute to MS Dhoni
This decision by the BCCI has been taken as a tribute to MS Dhoni and his contribution to Indian cricket and cricket.
The Indian Express said in their report: “It is learnt that the BCCI has informed players in the national team, especially the debutants, that they don’t have the option of numbers associated with Tendulkar and Dhoni.”
A BCCI official told the Indian Express: “The young players and current Indian team players have been told not to pick M S Dhoni’s Number 7 jersey. The BCCI has decided to retire Dhoni’s T-shirt for his contribution to the game. A new player can’t get No. 7, and No. 10 was already off the list of available numbers.”
According to the ICC rules, the players can pick any number between 1 and 100. However, in the BCCI rules, reportedly, there are about 60 numbers available.
“At present, 60-odd numbers are designated to the regulars in the Indian team and those in contention. So even if a player is out of the team for about a year or so, we don’t give away his number to a new player. That means a recent debutant has just 30-odd numbers to choose from,” added the BCCI official.
Meanwhile, MS Dhoni is currently recovering from a knee surgery in order to be completely fit for IPL 2024.
