Why Ambati Rayudu cannot play for MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings even after coming out of retirement?

As MS Dhoni’s team Chennai Super Kings won the IPL 2023 trophy, the team also bid goodbye to one of its senior players Ambati Rayudu, who had earlier announced his retirement from cricket. However, Rayudu has decided to come back to cricket just two weeks after announcing his retirement.

While Ambati Rayudu has decided to come out of retirement and return to the pitch, he will not be able to play for MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings in the next season of the Indian Premier League, and the reason for the same is explained below.

Rayudu came out of his retirement by signing a deal with the Texas Super Kings (TSK), which is a team in the Major League Cricket (MLC). The CSK player has joined the Texas franchise of MLC along with players like Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner, and Dwayne Bravo.

While players like Conway and Santner can play in both MLC and the IPL, the same cannot be applied to CSK veteran player Ambati Rayudu. It must be noted that Rayudu has played in the IPL twice after announcing his retirement, which means that this is not the deciding factor.

According to the rules set by the Indian cricket authorities BCCI, an Indian player cannot play in an international cricket league until and unless they have completely given up from Indian leagues. Once they start playing for an international league, they cannot return to Indian tournaments like the IPL.

As Rayudu has already signed his contract with the TSK for the MLC cricket, he will not be allowed to play for CSK in IPL again, and will not be allowed to participate in domestic cricket as well. Now that Ambati Rayudu has signed up for MLC, he can play for any international cricket league he wants.

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