| BCCI has reportedly informed the young Indian players that they can’t request for Dhoni’s No.7 jersey anymore. Tendulkar’s No.10 was off the list before. |
Drishti Mail, New Delhi: After Sachin Tendulkar’s jersey No. 10, the BCCI has decided to retire MS Dhoni’s No.7. In other words, jersey No.7 won’t be given to any other Indian cricketer going forward. Generally, a cricketer is allowed to choose his preferred jersey number before making his India debut. As per ICC rules, they are allowed to pick any number between 1 to 100 but according to a report, the BCCI has informed the young Indian players that they can’t request for the No.7 jersey anymore. Tendulkar’s No.10 was off the list in 2017.
“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,” a senior BCCI official was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
The decision comes three and a half years after Dhoni hung his boots in August 2020. He, however, made his last appearance wearing India’s jersey No.7 in the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in Manchester, England.
Dhoni would go down as one of the biggest names in Indian cricket. He is the only captain to have won all three ICC tournaments in the white-ball format.
He led a young Indian side to victory in the inaugural 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa. Four years later, India’s 28-year-long wait for an ODI World Cup ended when Dhoni hit that iconic six at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in the final of the 2011 World Cup against Sri Lanka. In 2013, Dhoni led India to the Champions Trophy title, which was also India’s last ICC title.
The talismanic cricketer from Ranchi, who continues to ply his trade as the captain of Chennai Super Kings in IPL, has represented India in 90 Tests, 350 ODIs, and 98 T20Is scoring 4876, 10773, and 1617 runs respectively.
Dhoni also holds the record for most dismissals by an Indian keeper. He has 634 catches and 195 stumping to his credit, making him the third most successful wicketkeeper in the history of the game behind South Africa’s Mark Boucher and Australia’s Adam Gilchrist.
‘Number crunch’ in Indian cricket
The decision to retire jersey numbers however leaves the young Indian cricketers with very few options to choose from. As per the current set-up, only the jersey numbers of the retired cricketers are allowed to be picked by the new ones coming in.
“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,” another BCCI official told Express.
The report adds that young Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal wanted jersey No.19 but because Dinesh Karthik uses the same number and he is still not retired, the left-hander had to settle for No.64.
