The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly, on October 12, said that former India captain MS Dhoni will not be charging any honorarium for his services as the mentor of the Indian Cricket Team for the upcoming T20 World Cup that will be held in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, starting October 17.

The Ranchi stalwart was brought in as a mentor by the BCCI last month when it announced the squad for the mega-event.

“Dhoni will not charge anything to mentor the Indian team,” Ganguly said.

The same was confirmed by BCCI Secretary Jay Shah.

Dhoni, a 40-year-old announced his retirement from international cricket last year. His last game for India was in the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand that India lost.

It is widely believed that Dhoni was brought in for his experience in devising near-perfect white ball strategies. He is also the most successful captain in Indian cricket history by winning major ICC trophies.

The wicketkeeper-batsman led India to two world titles — the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa and the 2011 ODI World Cup in India. Also the Champions Trophy in 2013.

The player’s retirement, announced by him through an Instagram post on August 15 last year, had taken the cricket world by surprise and he has not spoken even once about it after that.

The right-handed batsman, who is famous for winning matches with boundaries or maximums, has played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20 Internationals amassing 4876, 10,773 and 1617 runs, respectively, across formats.

After retiring from international cricket, he has kept a low profile and focussed more on family and IPL.

India squad for T20 World Cup:

Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohd Shami. Standby players: Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar.