"MS Dhoni has to retire from IPL first"- BCCI ends the speculation about Indian players'participation in overseas leagues, even as mentors

The involvement of the IPL franchises is now not only restricted to the Indian Premier League. In fact, they have invested in other new leagues and have bought teams in the South African and UAE T20 leagues to expand more. And there is no doubt that these franchises would want to see their contracted Indian players play for their other teams as well.

But as per the policy of the Indian board, the players are not allowed to participate in any other leagues apart from the IPL. The current policy confirms that any contracted Indian player will not get permission to participate in any overseas leagues.

Furthermore, it says that a player can only get involved if he is retired and doesn't have any kind of tie with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Notably, the owners of MI, CSK, SRH, RR, DC, and LSG have all bought a team in the South African T20 league.

On the other hand, MI, DC, and KKR have each bought a team in the UAE T20 leagues. But it doesn't mean that they can take any Indian players to play for their other teams until they are contracted with the BCCI and have not retired.

As per some media reports, the CSK franchise were looking to use the services of MS Dhoni as a mentor for their other teams, but now it is clear that it won't be possible and it can only happen if the former Indian captain has to retire from the IPL first.

A BCCI official confirmed this to The Indian Express and said, "It’s clear, no Indian player including domestic players can take part in any other league until he is retired from all forms of the game. If any player wants to take part in these upcoming leagues he can only do so when he cuts off all ties with the BCCI. Then he can’t play IPL for CSK. He has to retire here first."

Earlier, the former Australian wicket-keeper, Adam Gilchrist, opined that the BCCI should allow Indian players to play in the other leagues. To that, Indian former skipper Sunil Gavaskar also responded. Gavaskar said that Australia and England want Indian players to play in their leagues for their own interests because Indian players bring more sponsors and crowd.