Pune IPL team unveil name, announce MS Dhoni as Captain

The Pune IPL franchise has announced Indian national limited overs skipper MS Dhoni as their Captain for the forthcoming 2016 season. The franchise has also narrowed down on a final name, calling itself the Rising Pune Supergiants.

The Sanjiv Goenka owned team, had recently hired the services of Stephen Fleming, mimicking the hierarchy set at Chennai Super Kings prior to their temporary oust.

An ecstatic Goenka said, “Apart from these aspects, we have also appointed Raghu Iyer as our CEO, he is already an integral part of the Sanjiv Goenka group as he is the CEO our sports extension, sports vertical.”

The team logo was also unveiled by Goenka.

This will be the first time MS Dhoni will be playing for another franchise apart from CSK in the IPL. The other players recruited by Rising Giants Supergiants, during the 2016 IPL draft are Steven Smith, Ravichandran Ashwin, Faf Du Plessis and Ajinkya Rahane.

Post the IPL switch, only three players Virat Kohli and Shaun Marsh have played for a single franchise, since the league’s inception.

With the IPL auction to be held on February 6, it will be interesting to see which player Dhoni and co narrow down on. CSK stalwarts such as Suresh Raina have already made the switch to the other new franchise, Rajkot.

More to follow...