Dhoni's No. 7 Jersey Retired, Rohit Sharma Out as MI Captain
The BCCI announced the retirement of MS Dhoni’s iconic 07 jersey on15th December 2023. The number 07 jersey will not be available to any other player now.
The BCCI announced the retirement of our favorite Indian cricketer MS Dhoni’s iconic 07 jersey on 15th December 2023. The retirement of a jersey means that the jersey with number 07 of the Indian Cricket Team won't be available to any other player ever. The BCCI took this decision to honor Dhoni’s contribution to the sport. Before retiring from international cricket four years ago in 2019, captain Dhoni led his team to victory in all major ICC tournaments including 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ODI World Cup, and 2013 Champions Trophy. He holds the steller record of delivering 10,773 runs in ODI, 1617 runs in T20, 4876 runs in Test matches and 294 dismissals as the wicketkeeper. Dhoni is the second cricketer to receive this honor. The first & only other cricketer to receive this honor is our beloved Sachin Tendulkar whose Jersey number 10 was retired in 2017. In 2017, Shardul Thakur came on the field wearing number 10 and was trolled on social media. The BCCI intervened and switched his jersey to number 54 and retired jersey no 10. A senior BCCI official said that they have informed the debutants, young players and current team players that they now don’t have the option to pick the number 07 jersey and number 10 jersey. The BCCI official also said that while ICC allows players to pick any number from 01 to 100, only 30 numbers are available for the new and young players to choose from. This is because remaining numbers are designated to the regular Indian team players. According to the reports, the number is not taken away even if the player has been out of the team for a year.
Why are jersey numbers retired?
Retiring jerseys has been a long tradition in all sports across the globe. It is done to show respect to a player, usually after they leave a team, retire from a sport or die. Once a number is retired, no player is allowed to wear that number. Usually, in ice hockey and basketball, jerseys are retired and hung in the team's home venue. Meanwhile, the Mumbai Indians announced on 15th December that Hardik Pandya will take over as captain of the team starting in IPL 2024, ending Rohit Sharma's illustrious 10-year tenure as captain. Mumbai Indians said the change in leadership was part of their future planning and thanked Rohit for his exemplary service to the franchise and even released a video in his honour. However fans were angry and showed their support for Rohit Sharma, saying there is no Mumbai Indian without him. Some users slammed the Mumbai Indian teams while some also posted videos of unfollowing the official social media of the team. MI lost some 4 lakh followers in 1 hour after their announcement. Jerseys, Flags were burnt, no one was congratulating Pandya, Players not liking posts. Chennai Super Kings posted on Instagram as a tribute to skipper Rohit Sharma. To which, Rohit’s wife Ritika Sajdeh reacted with a yellow-coloured heart sign. Indians are truly crazy about cricketers. In future even number 18, Virat Kohli’s jersey may be retired.
