BCCI Retain Jersey No. 7: The Board of Control for Cricket in India has honoured legendary India captain MS Dhoni by retiring his iconic number 7 jersey – making him only the second player after Sachin Tendulkar, who has had their jersey retired.

TrendsMyth reported that the BCCI decided to retire Dhoni’s jersey in recognition of his sports contributions. His number 7 shirt will no longer be made available for use by any players.

Reports state that the BCCI informed young Indian athletes they could no longer request Dhoni’s No.7 jersey; Tendulkar’s No.10 shirt had been removed from the list.

Dhoni is an iconic figure in cricket. As both captain and player, his record speaks for itself; leading India to all three major ICC trophies, including the 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup victories, is unrivalled.

Dhoni amassed 10,773 runs for India across 350 ODIs, scoring ten centuries and 72 half-centuries. Additionally, he scored 1617 T20I runs in 98 games with an average of 37.60 and a strike rate of 126.13; besides, he amassed 4876 runs across 97 test matches, hitting six centuries and 33 fifties.

Football and basketball teams also honour tradition by retiring jerseys of past stars; the Chicago Bulls did so for Michael Jordan with their No. 23 kit, while Italian club Napoli celebrated Diego Maradona by retiring his No. 10 kit.

According to the International Cricket Council, players from all levels can select between 1 and 100 as their jersey number. India, however, imposes some limitations on this practice, and only up to 4 can be chosen per season.

Dhoni made his final appearance for India as captain during the 2019 World Cup Semi-Final against New Zealand in Manchester, England. This decision was reached three and a half years after Dhoni retired in August 2020.

Dhoni will go down in Indian cricket history as one of its most significant figures; he remains the only captain who has won all three ICC white-ball tournaments.

‘Number Crunch’ In Indian Cricket

Due to the decision to retire jersey numbers, young Indian cricketers now have minimal choices when selecting their jersey numbers. Under the current system, only retired cricketers can choose their numbers.

Current Indian team players receive one of 60 odd numbers; we do not give away one to anyone new, even if they have been out for months or years; recent debutants may only have 30 odd numbers to select from, according to another BCCI official.

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