Suresh Raina is certainly one of the most loved cricketers of India as many cricket fans were emotionally hurt when he went unsold in the mega-auction for the IPL 2022 and some fans of Chennai Super Kings not only slammed the franchise but also the skipper MS Dhoni for this. What surprised everyone was that CSK even didn’t place the bid for their highest run-scorer who is the fourth highest run-scorer of the league and his value can be understood by the fact that his fans also lovingly call him Mr. IPL.
Suresh Raina also played an important role in three IPL wins of CSK and he was a part of the team in the IPL 2021 as well but was out of form so he was not able to contribute much in the team’s fourth title win.
Many fans were of the opinion that CSK should have at least given one chance to bid farewell in a respectful manner to Suresh Raina who is one of the most valuable players of the franchise.
Suresh Raina took retirement on the same day when MS Dhoni took retirement and since then, he hasn’t played much cricket as he is not playing on the domestic level. Many former cricketers also expressed surprise over Raina going unsold and few of them felt that opting out of the IPL 2020 and bad form in the IPL 2021 played a very big role in his ouster from CSK.
Suresh Raina made an appeal to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
According to BCCI guidelines, active male cricketers are barred from participating in overseas competitions such as Big Bash League, Caribbean Premier League, etc. Regardless of whether they have a national contract or close to national selection. Despite the fact that every other nation allows their cricketers to play in the league cricket.
So Raina made an appeal to the BCCI which is related to granting permission to retired players to play in the franchise cricket in other nations.Appealing to BCCI Raina said,
“I hope that BCCI plans something with franchise leagues that whoever player is not in contract with the BCCI, then he should be allowed to play in leagues outside India. I feel there are many quality players who can learn a lot from playing outside. Whichever league – you can allow us two leagues where the BCCI can tell us to play there since we are not in any IPL team, or in the international team. If we play quality cricket in say CPL or Big Bash to get ready. You can look at many overseas players make comeback in their national side after IPL performances. But if we are neglected, we don’t have any plan B.”
Please @ImRo45 consider #SureshRaina for #MumbaiIndians team.🙏🇮🇳💙💙#Boycott_ChennaiSuperKings pic.twitter.com/yiCiZX0gbc
— Jyoti Suman (@Jas23478675) February 15, 2022
In the same video Raina gets emotional
He said in the video,
“Sometimes people forget those[achievements]; it is different now. Everyone wants to express the pain of their heart. Sometimes I feel things could be better because I have given my everything to the game. It’s important that it is understood by mind, and felt by the heart…I feel like ‘What do I say now?”
He went on to add,
“When my time comes, I will decide whether to play or not. But, if I’m not playing, I have family, life, and plenty of other stuff I love other than cricket”
Raina has 5528 runs at an average of 32 and a strike rate of 136, making him the fourth-highest run-scorer in IPL history. In his illustrious IPL career, he scored 1 century and 39 fifties while winning the championship four times.
What do you think of the demand made by Suresh Raina?