XtraTime Web Desk: A question that is making rounds among the cricket fans and the media in the country as why Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina chose to retire from international cricket on August 15. Both Dhoni and Raina bid adieu to international cricket in a span of few minutes on the Independence Day. The former India captain and undoubtedly the most successful ever made the announcement in a post on instagram with a number of late Mukesh playing in the background at 19:29 hrs. Minutes later Raina too followed his senior teammate who he always regarded as an elder brother. Now the million dollar question is what transpired them to announce their retirement on August 15 and not some other dates. They could have well decided to call it quit before the start of the 13th edition of IPL as that would have generated more media attention. Dhoni chose to keep the country’s media off guard with his announcement to retire much like the same manner he relinquished his captaincy and bid farewell to test cricket.
In an exclusive chat with Dainik Jagran, Raina revealed the exact reason for their retirement. According to Raina, “We had already planned to retire from international cricket long before and have decided to make the announcement on Independence Day. Dhoni’s jersey number is 7 while mine is 3, so if you join these two jersey numbers, it is 73. On Saturday the country completed its 73rd Independence Day and we both agreed that it was no better occasion to make the announcement.”
Raina further added, “Dhoni made his international debut against Bangladesh at Chittagong on December 23, 2004 while I made my ODI debut against Sri Lanka on July 30, 2005 at Dambulla. We have always played alongside each other in Indian team as well for Chennai Super Kings. We will continue playing for CSK in the coming days. We were very emotional in taking this decision. We had a small party on Saturday night with the CSK team members. We feel a lot relaxed now and will try and give our best for our franchise in the IPL in UAE.”