Ever since the Mumbai Indians decided to replace captain Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya, plenty of questions have been raised on social media over the decision. Reports of one or two franchises even enquiring about Rohit Sharma's availability for a trade also emerged. Not just Rohit, but even some other top players like Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah's names were also linked with a trade to another franchise. Some even suggested that Chennai Super Kings is one of the teams interested in signing stars from MI. But, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan has distanced his franchise from any possible trade with Mumbai Indians.
In a chat with Cricbuzz, Viswanathan said that it is against CSK's 'principles' to trade a player. When it comes to the Mumbai Indians, the Chennai boss doesn't think there's any player that his franchise can trade with Mumbai at present.
"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," franchise CEO Kasi Viswanathan told said midway through the auction in Dubai.
During the auction, Mumbai Indians Global Head of Cricket Mahela Jayawardene was asked about the decision to strip Rohit of captaincy responsibilities. He said the call had to be taken at some point. But, he now expects the Hitman to guide his successor Hardik in this period of transition.
"Having Ro (Rohit Sharma) in the team, on and off the field to guide the next generation is very important for us. He has been absolutely brilliant. I have worked very closely with Ro. He is a fabulous individual and I am sure he will be part of the legacy who will guide that through. Mumbai have had that in the past too with Sachin (Tendulkar), who played with the youngsters. He gave the leadership to someone else and made sure Mumbai Indians were going in the right direction. It's the same thing. We had this conversation and everyone is buying into that, so, it's for us to look forward to the next season," he said.