DELHI: Indian cricketer MS Dhoni has announced that he will not retire after winning a record fifth Indian Premier League (IPL) title.
According to the BBC, the ex-India captain, 41, was expected to retire from all forms of cricket, but he said love from his followers has made him give it another try.
Led by Dhoni, the Chennai Super Kings beat the Gujarat Titans on Monday night to win the trophy.
The “double good news” sparked huge celebration by followers on social media.
One Chennai Super Kings (CSK) supporter called Dhoni’s decision not to retire “a great gift” for cricket team fans.
Another fan said, “Allowing CSK and the followers to savour the moment by not announcing his retirement is classic Dhoni!”
Dhoni’s CSK won the cricket match by five wickets after Ravindra Jadeja hit the last-ball four to successfully chase down the revised target of 171 in a rain-affected cricket game.
Its followers and opposing team members celebrated the cricket team’s win.
Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya called Dhoni a “mentor” and said, “If I had to lose, I do not mind losing to him.”
In Kolkata, as CSK played against the home cricket team, several stands looked yellow – the Chennai team’s colour – as fans wore Dhoni’s shirt and not the purple kit of the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Followers had expected Dhoni to retire, especially if CSK took home the trophy this year.
There is little left for the players to achieve in the sport – Dhoni won the Twenty-20 World Cup in 2007 and led the India team to one-day world glory in 2011.
He has mentored dozens of talents, several of whom are the mainstay of the current Indian team.
He is known as one of the best cricket captains and a brilliant strategist and reader of the game.
But Dhoni is not known to follow conventions. His career had been built on unusual choices and surprises.
Commentator and ex-Australian cricketer Tom Moody said that in the IPL, he’s been “developing the young and reinventing the old” to make CSK serial champions.
On Monday, Dhoni seemed to believe he had one more season of triumph left for his fans.
He said, “This is the best time to announce my retirement.” However, he said he’d give it a few more months because of “the amount of love and affection I’ve been shown wherever I’ve been this year.”
Dhoni said he’d likely come back and play at least one more season of the IPL as “a gift” from his side to the fans.
He said, “The way they have shown their love and affection, I think that’s something I need to do for them.”
