IPL Governing Council proposal may ease M S Dhoni's return to CSK in 2018

The proposal if accepted will mean that Dhoni, who played for Rising Pune Supergiants in the last two editions, will be retained by CSK

Set to make a comeback next season, tainted teams Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) might be allowed to retain players who played for Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions in the last two years, going by a proposal floated by the IPL Governing Council (GC).

The move, if agreed upon by franchises during next month's workshop, will pave way for Mahendra Singh Dhoni's much-anticipated return to CSK.

"We are going to propose minimum 3 retentions — 1 Indian and 2 foreigners. The players, who played for Pune and Gujarat in last two years can be retained by Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. We will place it infront of owners during workshop next month," an IPL GC member told Press Trust of India after the meeting.

The proposal if accepted will mean that Dhoni, who played for Rising Pune Supergiants in the last two editions, will be automatically retained by CSK. Ditto for Suresh Raina or Ravindra Jadeja, who played for Gujarat Lions.

When IPL Chairman Rajiv Shukla was contacted, he said that total retentions including Right To Match (RTM) could be anything between three to five, depending upon what majority of the franchises agree.

It was also learnt that majority of the franchises want an increase in salary purse from Rs 60 cr to Rs 75 crore while a few want it to be Rs 80 crore.

"Most of the franchises want the salary purse to Rs 75 crore. I guess it would be done," the official said.