'We Don't Trade Players As Principle' - CSK Quashes Rohit Approach Rumour
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Rohit Sharma (Twitter)
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) once and for all binned the rumour that had hogged the limelight leading into the IPL 2024 mini-auction held in Dubai on Tuesday (December 19), stating they never approached outgoing Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma for a potential CSK stint next summer.
Super Kings CEO Kasi Viswanathan brushed aside suggestions of the five-time champions trying to poach Rohit at the recent turn of events within the MI set-up or any other player part of the arch-rival's camp ahead of the forthcoming season.
Rumour had done the rounds that CSK could be eyeing Rohit and prominent MI cricketers Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan after they were allegedly left aggrieved at being denied the captaincy ahead of IPL 2024.
CSK Denies Rohit Poaching Rumour
"We don't trade players as a principle and we also don't have players to trade with Mumbai Indians. We have not approached them and we don't intend to either," Viswanathan told Cricbuzz at the sidelines of the mini-auction.
MI had famously announced premier allrounder Hardik Pandya as Rohit's leadership replacement before the next season, leading to speculations that the franchise has sacked its esteemed five-time IPL winning skipper because of his ageing stature.
Adding fuel to the fire were cryptic posts made by Bumrah and Suryakumar on their social media handles, taken on the outside as a mark of their disagreement with the team management and ownership group's decision to remove Rohit or a sign that they wanted to be ones to replace him instead of Pandya, who just returned to the set-up after two years.
In all this, a rumour had claimed CSK could be using the upheaval within the MI set-up as an opportunity to poach one or two of their major picks when the trade window reopens on December 20 and stays open until a month before the first ball is bowled in IPL 2024.
 "Kashish Chadha")