MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli
Former India skipper MS Dhoni will not be taking any fees from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for his services as the national team's mentor in the upcoming T20 World Cup, said secretary Jay Shah on Tuesday.
The World Cup-winning skipper was appointed as the Indian team's mentor when the BCCI announced its 15-member squad for the multi-team T20 event in the UAE and Oman. India will start their T20 World Cup campaign against Pakistan on October 24.
“MS Dhoni is not charging any honorarium for his services as the mentor of the Indian team for the T20 World Cup,” Shah told news agency ANI.
BCCI President and ex-India skipper Sourav Ganguly also confirmed the development. The 40-year-old Dhoni retired from international cricket last year, his last India game being the 2019 World Cup semi-final, which the team lost to New Zealand.
"Dhoni will not charge anything to mentor the Indian team," Ganguly told PTI. The cricket icon from Jharkhand has played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20 Internationals amassing 4876, 10773 and 1617 runs respectively across formats.
The World Cup-winning skipper is currently leading Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL 2021. The Chennai outfit is just a win away from adding a fourth IPL trophy under its belt. They will take on either Kolkata Knight Riders or Delhi Capitals in the title clash on October 15.
Earlier, Shah had said that the decision to appoint Dhoni as a mentor for the World T20 was taken after he met the 40-year-old in Dubai. Skipper Virat Kohli and his white-ball deputy Rohit Sharma were also consulted before taking a decision on the same.
"Mr Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be joining Team India as a mentor for the upcoming T20 World Cup. I am glad that MS has accepted BCCI's offer and he is keen to contribute to the national team once again.
"MS will work closely with Mr Ravi Shastri as well as other support staff to provide support and direction to Team India," Shah had said in a virtual media interaction.
"(I) spoke to him (MSD) in Dubai. He agreed to be mentor for WT20 only and I discussed with my colleagues and all are on the same page. I spoke to captain (Virat Kohli) and vice-captain (Rohit Sharma) and everyone agreed," he had added.
India's T20 World Cup squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), K.L. Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan, Rahul Chahar and Varun Chakravarthy.
Standbys: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur.
