Chennai Super Kings are one of the six IPL franchises that have bought a team in the new T20 league of Cricket South Africa. CSA have confirmed that CSK will be home to the Johannesburg franchise in the tournament. It will be exciting to see which players turn up for the Johannesburg franchise in the tournament which is being called mini IPL by the cricket universe.
MS Dhoni has captained the Chennai Super Kings in IPL, leading the team to four championships. After the team’s last title win in IPL 2021, Dhoni had a lengthy chat with Harsha Bhogle at the post-match presentation. During the chat, he referred how the CSK franchise has always received support from the fans, irrespective of whether they played in India, UAE or South Africa.
Referring to South Africa, he took the name of Johannesburg city, and incidentally, Chennai Super Kings bought the Johannesburg franchise in the CSA T20 league.
“I would love to thank the fans. We are in Dubai now. Even when we played in Johannesburg, we always got good amount of support. Thanks to all of them. It feels like Chepauk, Chennai. Hopefully we will come back to play of the Chennai fans next year,” said Dhoni.
♾💛 for and from Joburg!#Yellove #WhistlePodu 🦁💛 pic.twitter.com/aWKKXb2vaV
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) July 21, 2022
MS Dhoni has another special connection with Johannesburg
Johannesburg will always be close to the heart of MS Dhoni because it was in this city back in 2007 that the Indian team won the inaugural ICC T20 World Cup under his captaincy. It was Dhoni’s first tournament as Indian captain, and they were up against Pakistan in the final match at the Wanderers Stadium.
Fans expect the new franchise to be named the Johannesburg Super Kings. The league will begin in December 2022 or January 2023.
