MS Dhoni’s Iconic No.7 Jersey Retires – Report (image-twitter/ishanjoshii)

As a tribute to one of the greatest Indian skippers, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to retire the iconic No. 7 jersey of M S Dhoni.

The Indian team players will now on will not be able to choose this number for their jersey. “The Indian cricket board, in a tribute to his contribution to the sport, has decided to ‘retire’ the number sported by the World cup winning captain” said a report in the Indian Express on Friday.

Though the Indian former captain retired three years ago, he still remains active in cricket franchise taking a lead role in Chennai Super Kings. During his 15-years of international career for India, Dhoni donned the No.7 shirt for India and its popularity still remains among the masses.

Under the leadership of Dhoni, India won the T20 World Cup in 2007, the ODI World Cup in 2011, and the Champions Trophy in 2013. But the announcement hasn’t made public yet. The board has only informed the debutants that they will not have the option to pick the jersey number associated with Dhoni. Before Dhoni, the BCCI retired Tendulkar’s iconic No.10 jersey as well.

As per the ICC rule, the players are given the opportunity to choose any number between 1 and 100 but BCCI somewhat limits it.

“At present, 60-odd numbers are designated for the regulars in the Indian team and those in contention. So even if a player is out of the team for about a year or so, we don’t give away his number to a new player. That means a recent debutant has just 30-odd numbers to choose from,” said a BCCI official, reports times now.

Presently, Virat Kohli’s No.18 and Rohit Sharma’s No. 45 jerseys are going to be next most adorned numbers once the batting legends retires and hence there will be no great surprise if the board decides to retire these numbers too.